After giving hearty thanks to the knights, the three were lowered, one at a time, and the rope was then dropped down. It was a good deal longer than was necessary for descending the wall, but Edgar, rather to the surprise of the others, had chosen it for the purpose. The first ditch was but ten yards away; it was some thirty feet across. "Now," Edgar said, "I will cross first. I am much the strongest, for neither of you has fully recovered his strength. The water will be icy cold, therefore I will swim across first, and do you, when I am over, each hold to the rope and I will pull you across." Short as was the distance the work was trying, for the night was bitterly cold, and the ditches would have been frozen hard, were it not that twice a day the besieged went out and broke the ice, which had now begun to bind again. At last, however, Edgar got across. "Do you take the rope, Albert, and let Hal hold on by you, for the passage I have made is but narrow." A few strong pulls on Edgar's part brought them across. "It is well," he said, as they climbed out, "that the knights promised to go one each way, to tell the watchers on the walls to take no heed of any sounds that they might hear of breaking ice, for that those leaving the town were doing so by their authority." The two other ditches were crossed in the same way, but the work was more difficult, as the besieged only broke the ice of these once a day. "We should never have got across without your aid, Edgar," Albert said. "I could scarce hold on to the rope. My hands are dead, and I feel as if I were frozen to the bone." "Let us run for a bit, Albert, to warm our blood. Another quarter of a mile and we shall be challenged by our sentries." CHAPTER XVIII A NOBLE GIFT The pace at which the party started soon slackened, for neither Albert nor Hal Carter could maintain it. However, it was not long before they heard the sentry challenge: "Who go there?" "Sir Albert De Courcy and Sir Edgar Ormskirk escaped from Ypres," Edgar answered. "Stand where you are till I call the sergeant," the man said, and shouted "Sergeant!" at the top of his voice. In five minutes a sergeant and two men-at-arms came up. "Hurry, sergeant, I pray you," Edgar said. "We have swum three ditches, and my companions, being weakened by their wounds, are well-nigh perished." "Come on," the sergeant said, "it is clear at any rate that you are Englishmen." He had brought a torch with him, and as they came up looked at them narrowly, then he saluted. "I know you, Sir Edgar, disguised as you are. I was fighting behind you on the wall five weeks since, and had it not been for the strength of your arm, I should have returned no more to England." "How is Sir Hugh Calverley?" Edgar asked, as they hurried towards the camp. "His wounds are mending fast," the sergeant said, "and he went out of his tent to-day for the first time. I saw him myself."