It was a very dark night, without moon or stars, a hot and still night wherein a man weather-wise might smell the rain.  The going upon the moor was none too good in a good light; yet they tell me that the old King went spurring over brush and scrub, over tufted roots, through ridge and hollow, with as much cheer as if the hunt was up in Venvil Wood and himself a young man.  When his followers besought him to take heed, all he would do was snap his fingers, the reins dangling loose, and cry to the empty night, ‘Hue, Brock, hue!’ as if he was baiting a badger.  This badger was the heir to his crown and dignity.

In the Dark Tower they heard him coming three miles away.  Roussillon was on the battlements, and came down to report horsemen on the plain.  ‘Lights out,’ said Richard, and gave Jehane a kiss as he set her down.  They blew out all the lights, and stood two to each door; no one spoke any more.  Jehane sat by the darkened fire with a torch in her hand, ready to light it when she was bid.

Thus when the Normans drew near they found the tower true to its name, without a glimmer of light.  ‘Let alone for that,’ said the King, whose grating voice they heard above all the others; ’very soon we will have a fire.’  He sent some of his men to gather brushwood, ling, and dead bracken; meantime he began to beat at the door with his axe, crying like a madman, ’Richard!  Richard!  Thou graceless wretch, come out of thy hold.’

Presently a little window-casement opened above him; Gaston of Bearn poked out his head.

‘Beau sire,’ he says, ’what entertainment is this for the Count your son?’

‘No son of mine, by the Face!’ cried the King.  ’Let that woman I have caged at home answer for him, who defies me for ever.  Let me in, thou sickly dog.’

Gaston said, ’Beau sire, you shall come in if you will, and if you come in peace.’

Says the King, ‘I will come in, by God, and as I will.’

‘Foul request, King,’ said Gaston, and shut the window.

‘Have it as you will; it shall be foul by and by,’ the King shouted to the night.  He bid them fire the place.

To be short, they heaped a wood-stack before the door and set it ablaze.  The crackling, the tossed flames, the leaping light, made the King drunk.  He and his companions began capering about the fire with linked arms, hounding each other on with the cries of countrymen who draw a badger—­’Loo, loo, Vixen!  Slip in, lass!  Hue, Brock, hue, hue!’ and similar gross noises, until for very shame Gilles and his kindred drew apart, saying to each other, ’We have let all hell loose, Legion and his minions.’  So the two companies, the grievous and the aggrieved, were separate; and Richard, seeing this state of the case, took Roussillon and Beziers out by the other door, got behind the dancers, attacked suddenly, and drove three of them into the fire.  ‘There,’ says the chronicler, ’the butcher Sir Rolf got a taste of his everlasting