Everything being now arranged, Conrad returned home, and waited impatiently for the hour when the signal would be made. On that morning he and three of the men, all dressed as peasants, took up their positions at various points a quarter of a mile or so from the castle, hiding behind the bushes so that they should not be perceived from the castle. Soon after eight o'clock the watchers saw a figure come to the window, and shake a garment as if to free it from dust. Then one by one they got up and strolled carelessly away, mounted their horses in the wood, and rode back to Waldensturm. The men and a number of boys were assembled at the ruins, and all were at once sent off to order the vassals to assemble there by eight o'clock on the evening of the next day. At the appointed time all were there, full of delight to see their young lord again, and protesting their readiness to die in his service. They now learned for the first time the nature of the enterprise in which they were about to take part, and their delight at the prospect of slaying the author of their misfortunes, and of capturing his castle, was unbounded. Many of them had provided themselves with bows or cross-bows, the boys having carried messages to that effect a few days before. One or two of the men still on the estate carried axes and coils of rope. Conrad and his men-at-arms were mounted at eight o'clock, by which hour the last of those summoned had come in. These followed on foot, and by half-past nine reached the wood selected for the ambush. The men with axes at once set to work to fell three or four trees across the road where it entered the wood on the side farthest away from Goldstein, the rest were distributed along it among the trees on both sides. Half an hour after their arrival, Grun, at the head of a hundred and fifty men, came up. Most of these had pikes, others were armed with scythes, while a few of the poorer class carried only flails; but all had long knives.