et was full narrow, and the houses leaned forward
from either side, so as to leave but scant vision of the blue sky above,
and there were plenty of windows in each story.

Now, as I rode by, I was level with the first story of the houses. And,
suddenly, before one window, my eyes were held captive, and I could not
turn them away. A man in a fisher's tunic was gazing out on us, and I
had not even to ask myself where I had seen his face before, for I knew
that it was Maugher. My eyes fell before his, and I blushed and trembled
at his sight.

"Uncle, uncle! my lord vicomte!" I said when we were passed, "dost know
who stood at yon window in a sailor's dress?"

"What meanest thou?" said he, as he saw me tremble.

"It was my Lord Archbishop of Rouen, the Sarrasin's accomplice," I
whispered in his ear.

We reined in our horses and looked back, but the man was gone.

"It was a fancy, child," said the vicomte; "there was no man there."

I said naught; but I knew it was no fancy, and I guessed whence these
villains that lately attacked me got their commission.

Now, at Coutances we learned of the canon, that knew the duke's
whereabouts, that he was near Barfleur, seeing both to his navy of ships
in the harbour there, and having care also to the exercise of archers on
the land.

"As I think," said the canon, "you will find my lord duke either in the
shipyard of Barfleur, or the shooting-ground of archers at Valognes hard
by."

It was then to Valognes, beyond the river Douve, that we were next to
ride, and we would pass on the way my uncle's castle of St Sauveur,
where mine ancestors had been settled since they were lords of the
Bessin. And the whole distance to Valognes was near fifty miles. It was
then mine uncle's wish that we should rest again at his house, and
prepare to approach Duke William with due state on the morrow; and this,
though I was unwilling to delay, I was forced to agree to.

So before evening we came in sight of St. Sauveur, a high and fair
castle, round whose walls the Douve makes a circuit.

Across a bridge raised on pillars over the moat we rode, and through the
wide-open gate we came into the courtyard, where there was great
greeting of my lord vicomte by my cousins, from whom he had been some
weeks absent.

"And here," said he, to young Alain and Rainauld, his sons, "is Nigel,
your cousin, a good scholar of Guernsey, that bids fair to be a better
soldier still."

So with fair greetings wa