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so far ahead that I could not sometimes hear the laughter of his men. Besides he deserved to have first look at his castle on his own. If it were Cambray to which we now returned, I should have like to see it for myself, and savor it alone.
    My two squires and I ambled more slowly, letting our horses mouth the peaty water. Presently, as Raoul had explained, the lake began to narrow again at its eastern end, where the river funneled from a channel running swifter there with a rush and clatter over pebble shoals. There would be good fishing among these rocks where the water plunged from a gorge, and by the lakeside where the meadows had opened wide, good pasture for the spring herds, good hunting in autumn for flocks of geese and ducks. The path had begun to rise above the water's edge once more; and as we rose, we left the mists below us like some gray cloak spread, and moved into clearer air. You could see dimly ahead the great cut the river made to our right, around the cliff edge like indeed to a ship's prow. And so in this way, idly, without haste, we came to the start of the cliff climb, where Raoul was waiting with his men. They did not speak as we came up; there was no sound, save the tired horses' stamping against the flies, the distant water's chatter. There were no trees on the cliff, bare rock it was with a few stunted bushes and sparse grass. You had to tilt your head as you looked up to where the day was already ending in a rack of clouds. And there, above us at the cliff's height, where should have stood the towers of Sieux, there was nothing, a blankness against the sky. At last Raoul spoke.
    ‘Now, before God,’ he said, 'I had not thought Henry to have done so much.'
    And after a long time, he moved up the path. I remember thinking, I should have known. And my heart grew heavy with what we would find at the gates of Sieux, and what he would do when he got there.
    The cliff was steep. We had to strain for footing on the flinty ground. The horses in front sent out showers of dirt and grit and, before we were halfway up, a hail of arrows came rattling down, like dead leaves falling. Had I had better knowledge, I would have known it for a flight too soon loosened, too ragged to be dangerous, but it made the horses shy, and a man cried out where a bolt took his upper arm. Some of the men tugged at their shields, which they had slung for comfort behind their saddles, others freed their swords, snatched for their helmets.
    Raoul spurred forward, without pause, without armor, bare-headed in shirt and jerkin. He threw the reins loose across the horse's neck, with his left hand plucked forth his sword. Its blade glinted as he drew; I heard his cry, that terrible battle cry that I had heard but once before, that made my blood run cold. His men took it up, the battle cry of the Normans, men of the north, the old berserkers calling down their gods of havoc and war. They rode like furies up the path, and far off, I heard that thin shriek of fear I never hoped to hear. And I thought, covering my face with my hand while my belly heaved. Not again.
    Then, without thought, without will, I too went lumbering up the path, the squires shouting at me to hold, trying to force their skittish horses round mine to bring me to a halt. Without thought I rode, but whether it was in my mind to stop the slaughter or to help it, I cannot tell. I only know that when reason came back, it was already done. As indeed I might have known from the start. No disciplined band would have given themselves away so soon, or shot down on armed men to lose the advantage of surprise.
    Lord Raoul had already paused where two men had fallen in a welter of blood. Others were scrambling over the cliff's edge; the rest, with some of Raoul's men in pursuit on foot, went backing down the further side of the path. Even as I looked, another fell. Miserable curs they were, dressed all in rags. We had caught them at their food, for