Felix looked, and saw that he was opposite the extreme angle of the city wall, a point usually guarded with care.  There was a warder stalking to and fro; he carried a partisan, but, of course, might have his bow within reach, or could probably call to the soldiers of the guard.

“This is annoying,” said Felix, ready to give up his enterprise.  “How ever can I get into the city?”

The old boatman grinned, but said nothing, and returned to a net which he was mending.  He made no answer to the further questions Felix put to him.  Felix then shouted to the warder; the soldier looked once, but paid no more heed.  Felix walked a little way and sat down on the grass.  He was deeply discouraged.  These repulses, trifles in themselves, assumed an importance, because his mind had long been strung up to a high pitch of tension.  A stolid man would have thought nothing of them.  After a while he arose, again asking himself how should he become a leader, who had not the perseverance to enter a city in peaceful guise?

Not knowing what else to do, he followed the creek round the foot of the hill, and so onwards for a mile or more.  This bank was steep, on account of the down; the other cultivated, the corn being already high.  The cuckoo sang (she loves the near neighbourhood of man) and flew over the channel towards a little copse.  Almost suddenly the creek wound round under a low chalk cliff, and in a moment Felix found himself confronted by another city.  This had no wall; it was merely defended by a ditch and earthwork, without tower or bastion.

The houses were placed thickly together; there were, he thought, six or seven times as many as he had previously seen, and they were thatched or shingled, like those in his own country.  It stood in the midst of the fields, and the corn came up to the fosse; there were many people at work, but, as he noticed, most of them were old men, bowed and feeble.  A little way farther he saw a second boathouse; he hastened thither, and the ferrywoman, for the boat was poled across by a stout dame, made not the least difficulty about ferrying him over.  So delighted was Felix at this unexpected fortune, that he gave her the small silver coin, at sight of which he instantly rose high in her estimation.

She explained to him, in answer to his inquiries, that this was also called Aisi; this was the city of the common folk.  Those who were rich or powerful had houses in the walled city, the precinct of the Court.  Many of the houses there, too, were the inns of great families who dwelt in the country in their castles, but when they came to the Court required a house.  Their shields, or coats of arms, were painted over the doors.  The walled city was guarded with such care, because so many attempts had been made to surprise it, and to assassinate the king, whose fiery disposition and constant wars had raised him up so many enemies.  As much care was taken to prevent a single stranger entering as if he were the vanguard of a hostile army, and if he now went back (as he could do) to the bridge over the river, he would be stopped and questioned, and possibly confined in prison till the king returned.