They ran out, leaving a dozen with me.  Edric’s men were yet in the street, and now they drew near the door, listening as I thought.

“How shall you escape?” I said to the goldsmith.

“Out of the back way, lord, and up the meadows to the ford if the ferryman is asleep.  But I must go before the house is beset.”

“Keep the gold for your service,” I said, “for I think that the silver penny has saved me.”

So he thanked me, and crept away easily enough.  I suppose that Edric’s men had no orders that had made provision for trouble with me of this sort, and that they hardly knew what had happened.  But it was likely that they would send word to Edric directly, when they began to be sure that something had gone amiss.  They tried the door again, but without much heart.  My men wanted to throw it open and charge out on them, but I would not suffer it.  So long as they loitered outside we had time to get away.  Then some of them tried the gate of the courtyard behind the house, but the men had barred that after the goldsmith had gone out.  And all the while the horses were being saddled silently, and they would be ready in a few minutes.

The earl’s men spoke now outside the door, and I could hear what they said.

“Let us break in and see what has befallen Godric.”

“Nay, the hall is full of men now.  Let us go back.”

“It was Godric’s own fault.  He had no reason to smite the porter, who stayed him not.”

Then I thought that the men knew not what their errand was, and were to take orders from the slain man.  Thus there would be no fighting in the street when we came out.

So it was, for when the horses were ready, the stablemen of the house threw open the great gates of the courtyard, which was beside the house, as it happened, and we rode out quietly, but with weapons ready, and they did but shrink together and stare when they saw us.  There were about thirty of them in all.

Now I would not give Edric any reason to blame me to Eadmund, and so I wheeled my men to the right, away from the bridge and along the great road towards London, and letting them go on slowly, I called to a man who stood foremost.

“This is a sorry business,” I said; “but your leader had no right to smite my man, and one waxes hasty when a man behaves thus.  He was an unmannerly messenger.”

“Aye, lord, he was,” the men said.

“Well, then, tell your earl that I have even now left the town, and that being ready to do so I came not with you; and say how it was that this man was slain, and that I am sorry therefor.”

“We will tell him,” they said.

So I spurred my horse and rode after my company, knowing that it would be hard for Edric to know the rights of the matter.  The men would certainly not wonder at the slaying of Godric, seeing how he had behaved.  I thought that Eadmund would never hear of this.