All has gone well,
love, and methinks that we shall hear no more of them; but they fought
more stoutly than I had given them credit for, seeing that they were but a
mixed rabble, with a small proportion of real men-at-arms among them. I
suppose Henry brought you my message to close the inner gates, as they had
gained a footing on the walls."
"No, I received no message since the one he brought me half an hour ago,
saying that all was going well, and I thought that he was with you. Where
can he be, Eustace?" she asked anxiously.
"I know not indeed, Margaret, but will search at once. While I do so will
you go to the hall that you have prepared for the wounded, and give what
aid you can there? Do not fear for the boy; he turned and ran off when I
spoke to him, and as his head reaches not to the top of the battlements no
harm can have befallen him, though in truth I cannot think what can have
delayed him."
He called to two or three of the men below to take torches, and to
accompany him at once, and sent others to the sheds to ask if he had been
seen there, then went up to the top of the inner wall and crossed the
bridge at the back.
[Illustration: "SIR EUSTACE GAVE A LOUD CRY, FOR LYING AT THE BOTTOM OF
THE STAIR WAS THE FORM OF HIS SON."]
"Have any of you seen aught of my son Henry?" he asked the men there.
"No, my lord," one said in reply. "I marked him by our side just before
the French got a footing at the other end of the wall, but I saw him not
afterwards.
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