Sir Nicholas' fingers had found the door-handle, and turned it now in one quick movement. The door was flung open; he sprang back, fighting his way, sent the foremost guard sprawling with a wound in the breast, and slammed the door home behind him. Cruza threw himself upon it, thrusting with all his might. "Quick, fools!" he cried, and heard the key grate in the lock. "Two of you down into the garden, under the window!" he jerked out. "Break down this door, you others! Break it down!" Two of the guards went running down the stairs and round to the back; the rest set their shoulders to the door. The lock gave under the weight, the door flew wide, and the guards were in. The room was empty. An overturned chair lay a-sprawl by the window; a casement swung open on its hinge, and the curtain beside it was rent from end to end. With one accord his men followed Cruza to the window and tried to crane out. From the arras behind the door Sir Nicholas slipped out, kissed his fingers silently to the backs of the guards, and was off without a sound across the upper hall to the stairs. He went down in a series of bounds, reached the hall, and stepped over Don Diego's body to the door. A beam of light cast through the opening showed him a guard standing to the horses' heads. He went forward in a rush then, and his sword-hilt took the guard on the chin almost before he was aware, and sent him sprawling in the road. Sir Nicholas caught a bridle, vaulted into the saddle, and stood up in his stirrups. "Come then, ye dogs!" he cried. "Follow El Beauvallet if ye dare, and take _Reck Not_ for the word!" He wheeled about as the two guards came dashing round the corner of the house, and galloped off down the way by which he had come, eastwards towards the Frontier. CHAPTER XXIV The horse he had snatched was a fleet curtal bay, and responded readily enough to the clap of heels to his flanks. Sir Nicholas held him on his course with a hard hand, heard behind him shouts and the trampling of the horses he had cut loose by his sudden onslaught on the guard who held them, and pressed on. The noise died away, only the pounding of the bay's hooves on the track now broke the stillness. Where the track came out on the post-road a crowd was gathered, peering and listening. The news of the guards' coming and the prey they sought had spread through the village; there were assembled now some peasants, a-gape, and servants of the Carvalho estate, fingering staves. Lanterns bobbed and twinkled amongst them, but the moon was coming up, and a faint grey light already made the lanterns superfluous.