bids the four
abide their coming back with their prey, which now he nowise doubted
of, and takes Steelhead and Osberne along with him, and brings them to
the warder; who laughed when he saw Steelhead, for he went for that
time all bent and bowed, and, as he deemed by what he could see under
the dim sky, ragged and wretched. Said he: "Minstrel, thou wert scarce
in luck to happen on this rag of a kinsman of thine. Hast thou no
better, man?" Said Stephen, grinning in the dark: "Abide till ye have
proved him. Trust me, he hath something better than sour curds in his
belly." "Well," said the warder, "let-a-be! As for the young man, he
seems like enough. Now then, fellow, for a pull at the florin-tree."

So they went, the four of them, toward the Great Bastide, and none
hindered them, deeming that they were of the service of the Baron.
Even at the door of the Baron's lodging the warder (there was but one
and a chamberlain) nodded friendly to the soldier and let them pass
unquestioned. They entered the chamber, wherein now was no man, as the
Baron would have it whenas he listed to sleep. The soldier went
forward on tip-toe, but Stephen trod heavily, and Steelhead laughed
aloud, and went straight up to the great man's bedhead, and fared to
pass his hand over his face from his forehead to his chin, just
touching him, but the sleeping man waked not. As for Osberne, he stood
betwixt the door and the soldier, and drew his sword forth from under
his carter's frock, but it was not Boardcleaver, for he had left him
at home. The soldier looked from one to another, and stared astonished
at their demeanour. Straightway then he had both Stephen and Osberne
on him at once: nor had he any senses nor might to strive with them,
who stripped his coat off over his head, gagged him, and tied him hand
and foot. By then they had done this, Steelhead had taken up the naked
Baron and set some of the warder's raiment on him, and done on him the
said warder's coat and sallet over all; and there stood the man of
worship, waked up now, as it seemed, but looked before him as if he
saw naught, even as a man who walks in sleep. Stephen the meantime
unstrung his fiddle and began to play a slow sweet tune thereon, and
let his big but melodious voice go with it, and thus they brought the
lordship of Deepdale to the door, and still he seemed of no avail,
save to walk on as Steelhead would have him.

So out they fared, and none hindered them any more than whe