ng. Going along the passage they issued into the main
yard. Here great fires were blazing, and groups of men sat round them
drinking and shouting. Many lay about in drunken sleep.

"Stay where you are in the shade, Ralph. You had best lie down by the
foot of the wall. Anyone who passes will think that you are in a drunken
sleep. I will creep forward and possess myself of the steel caps of
two of these drunkards, and if I can get a couple of cloaks so much the
better."

There was no difficulty about the caps, and by dint of unbuckling the
cloaks and rolling their wearers gently over, Walter succeeded at last
in obtaining two of them. He also picked up a sword for Ralph--his own
still hung in its sheath--and then he joined his companion, and the two
putting on the steel caps and cloaks walked quietly to the gate. There
were none on guard, and they issued unmolested into the town. Here all
was revelry. Bonfires blazed in the streets. Hogsheads of wine, with
the heads knocked out, stood before many of the houses for all to help
themselves who wished. Drunken soldiers reeled along shouting snatches
of songs, and the burghers in the highest state of hilarity thronged the
ways.

"First of all, Ralph, we will have a drink of wine, for I am chilled to
the bone."

"Aye, and so am I," Ralph replied. "I got hot enough climbing that rope,
but now the cold has got hold of me again, and my teeth are chattering
in my head."

Picking up one of the fallen vessels by a cask they dipped it in and
took a long draught of wine; then, turning off from the principal
streets, they made their way by quiet lanes down to one of the gates. To
their dismay they found that this was closed. The French commanders knew
that Sir Walter Manny or Salisbury might ere this be pressing forward
to relieve the town, and that, finding that it had fallen, they might
attempt to recapture it by a sudden attack. While permitting therefore
the usual licence, after a successful assault, to the main body of their
forces, they had placed a certain number of their best troops on the
walls, giving them a handsome largess to make up for their loss of the
festivities.

At first Walter and his friend feared that their retreat was cut off for
the night, but several other people presently arrived, and the officer
on guard said, coming out, "You must wait a while; the last batch have
only just gone, and I cannot keep opening and closing the gate; in half
an hour I will l