e said that surprise would be impossible,
as the knight would be sure to take every precaution against it; and that
in the event of such an attack being attempted, he would possibly carry
his threat into execution, and murder Dame Editha before their eyes. Cnut
was like a madman, so transported with fury was he; and the archers were
also beside themselves. Cuthbert alone retained his calmness. Retiring
apart from the others, he paced slowly backwards and forwards among the
trees, deliberating upon the best course to be pursued. The archers
gathered round the fire and passed the night in long and angry talk, each
man agreeing that in the event of their beloved leader being sacrificed
by Sir Rudolph, they would one and all give their lives to avenge him by
slaying the oppressor whensoever he ventured beyond the castle gates.

After a time, Cuthbert called Cnut to him, and the two talked long and
earnestly. Cnut returned to his comrades with a face less despairing than
that he had before worn, and sent off at once a messenger with all speed
to a franklin near the forest to borrow a stout rope some fifty feet in
length, and without telling his comrades what the plans of Sir Cuthbert
were, bade them cheer up, for that desperate as the position was, all
hope was not yet lost.

"Sir Cuthbert," he said, "has been in grievous straits before now, and
has gone through them. Sir Rudolph does not know the nature of the man
with whom he has to deal, and we may trick him yet."

At eleven o'clock the next day, from the walls of Evesham Castle a body
of archers 150 strong were seen advancing in solid array.

"Think you, Sir Rudolph," one of his friends, Sir Hubert of Gloucester,
said to him, "that these varlets think of attacking the castle?"

"They might as well think of scaling heaven," Sir Rudolph said. "Evesham
could resist a month's siege by a force well equipped for the purpose;
and were it not that good men are wanted for the king's service, and
that these villains shoot straight and hard, I would open the gates of
the castle and launch our force against them. We are two to one as
strong as they, and our knights and mounted men-at-arms could alone
scatter that rabble."

Conspicuous upon the battlements a gallows had been erected.

The archers stopped at a distance of a few hundred yards from the castle,
and Sir Cuthbert advanced alone to the edge of the moat.

"Sir Rudolph of Eresby, false knight and perjured gentleman," h