ing path, and then, having
satisfied a guard of men-at-arms, were admitted through the frowning
arch of the Pipewell Gate. There waiting for them, in the middle of
the east street, the sun gleaming upon his lemon-colored beard, and
puckering his single eye, stood Chandos himself, his legs apart, his
hands behind his back, and a welcoming smile upon his quaint high-nosed
face. Behind him a crowd of little boys were gazing with reverent eyes
at the famous soldier.

"Welcome, Nigel!" said he, "and you also, good archer! I chanced to be
walking on the city wall, and I thought from the color of your horse
that it was indeed you upon the Udimore Road. How have you fared,
young squire errant? Have you held bridges or rescued damsels or slain
oppressors on your way from Tilford?"

"Nay, my fair lord, I have accomplished nothing; but I once had hopes--"
Nigel flushed at the remembrance.

"I will give you more than hopes, Nigel. I will put you where you can
dip both arms to the elbow into danger and honor, where peril will sleep
with you at night and rise with you in the morning and the very air you
breathe be laden with it. Are you ready for that, young sir?"

"I can but pray, fair lord, that my spirit will rise to it."

Chandos smiled his approval and laid his thin brown hand on the youth's
shoulder. "Good!" said he. "It is the mute hound which bites the
hardest. The babbler is ever the hang-back. Bide with me here, Nigel,
and walk upon the ramparts. Archer, do you lead the horses to the 'Sign
of the Broom Pod' in the high street, and tell my varlets to see them
aboard the cog Thomas before nightfall. We sail at the second hour after
curfew. Come hither, Nigel, to the crest of the corner turret, for from
it I will show you what you have never seen."

It was but a dim and distant white cloud upon the blue water seen far
off over the Dungeness Point, and yet the sight of it flushed the young
Squire's cheeks and sent the blood hot through his veins. It was the
fringe of France, that land of chivalry and glory, the stage where name
and fame were to be won. With burning eyes he gazed across at it, his
heart rejoicing to think that the hour was at hand when he might tread
that sacred soil. Then his gaze crossed the immense stretch of the blue
sea, dotted over with the sails of fishing-boats, until it rested upon
the double harbor beneath packed with vessels of every size and shape,
from the pessoners and creyers which plied up