te down. Take pen and ink-horn,
Gilbert. We cannot all be Sacristans of Battle."

'Said Fulke from the floor, "Ye have bound a King's messenger. Pevensey
shall burn for this."

'"Maybe. I have seen it besieged once," said De Aquila, "but heart up,
Fulke. I promise thee that thou shalt be hanged in the middle of the
flames at the end of that siege, if I have to share my last loaf with
thee; and that is more than Odo would have done when we starved out him
and Mortain."

'Then Fulke sat up and looked long and cunningly at De Aquila.

'"By the Saints," said he, "why didst thou not say thou wast on the Duke
Robert's side at the first?"

'"Am I?" said De Aquila.

'Fulke laughed and said, "No man who serves King Henry dare do this much
to his messenger. When didst thou come over to the Duke? Let me up and
we can smooth it out together." And he smiled and becked and winked.

'"Yes, we will smooth it out," said De Aquila. He nodded to me, and
Jehan and I heaved up Fulke--he was a heavy man--and lowered him into
the shaft by a rope, not so as to stand on our gold, but dangling by his
shoulders a little above. It was turn of ebb, and the water came to his
knees. He said nothing, but shivered somewhat.

'Then jehan of a sudden beat down Gilbert's wrist with his sheathed
dagger. "Stop!" he said. "He swallows his beads."

'"Poison, belike," said De Aquila. "It is good for men who know too
much. I have carried it these thirty years. Give me!"

'Then Gilbert wept and howled. De Aquila ran the beads through his
fingers. The last one--I have said they were large nuts--opened in two
halves on a pin, and there was a small folded parchment within. On it
was written: "_The Old Dog goes to Salisbury to be beaten. I have his
Kennel. Come quickly_."

'"This is worse than poison," said De Aquila, very softly, and sucked in
his cheeks. Then Gilbert grovelled in the rushes, and told us all he
knew. The letter, as we guessed, was from Fulke to the Duke (and not the
first that had passed between them); Fulke had given it to Gilbert in
the chapel, and Gilbert thought to have taken it by morning to a certain
fishing boat at the wharf, which trafficked between Pevensey and the
French shore. Gilbert was a false fellow, but he found time between his
quakings and shakings to swear that the master of the boat knew nothing
of the matter.

'"He hath called me shaved head," said Gilbert, "and he hath thrown
haddock-guts at me; but for all that