the little hill towards Aescendune.

"What cheer?" cried the old man, "hither!"

And as he spoke the stranger turned his head, hearing the familiar
sounds, and ascended the hill slowly, and with pain.

He presented a dismal object; his hair and beard had been scorched
in some intense fire, and his clothes blackened and burnt.

The two Normans, old man and boy, stood up aghast.

"What! is it thou, Owen of Bayeux?"

"I was that man a few hours agone. I doubt what I am now."

"What hast thou suffered, then? Where are the baron and his men?"

"Burnt in the Dismal Swamp?"

"Burnt?"

"Yes, burnt; I speak good French do I not?"

"Owen, Owen," cried the old Raoul, "do not mistake thy friends for
foes! tell us what dreadful event has happened, to disturb thy
reason."

"Would it were but disturbed! Oh that I should have lived to see
this day!"

"Tell us," cried young Tristam, "tell us, Owen."

"A fate was on us, as on the Egyptians of old; only they perished
by water, we by fire."

"But how?"

"Ordgar the guide, whom we thought we had secured so opportunely,
led us into the marshes and left us therein; and while we were
there, the English fired the reeds and bulrushes on all sides."

"And the baron?"

"He and all have perished; I only have escaped to tell thee. Where
are the rest who were left behind?"

"Here they are," cried Tristam, as a group of old warriors
approached.

"Come, Roger, Jocelyn, Jolliffe--come hear the news," cried the
boy. "Oh, come and hear them; can they be true? All burnt? all
dead?"

The horror-struck Normans soon learnt the fatal truth from Owen of
Bayeux, and all their stoical fortitude was shaken.

"I was one of the last on the track, and saved only by a mere
chance, or the grace of St. Owen, my patron. I had dropped my
quiver of arrows, and had gone back a few steps to fetch it; they
brought me to the edge of the reedy marsh, and I was just
returning, having found the quiver, when I heard a cry, followed by
echoes as from a chain of sentinels all round the marsh--'Fire the
reeds!' I ran back to the main land, climbed a tree which stood
handy, and saw the marsh burst into fire in a hundred spots. It was
lighted all round, while our men were in the midst. A chain of
enemies surrounded it. I did my best to warn our lord or to die
with him. I penetrated the marsh a little distance, when the flames
beat me back--man can't fight fire."

"Let us go to the castle, take what we