They had barely entered the forest when the moon swept out into a sky where broken clouds began to drift, and the meadow they had crossed, as likewise the river, and again beyond it the forest where the castle stood, were in the full flood of silver light, only obscured for a few moments as a cloud veiled the moon. They paused to watch the scene, and then they exclaimed almost with one voice: "Only just in time!" Out of the forest they had quitted some horsemen rode into the open, close by where they had stepped into the boat. Steel glanced at every movement, and so plainly did everything come into view that they saw one of the horsemen looking around from beneath the hand which shaded his eyes. "The City Guard!" cried Herman. "And Cochlaeus, so I think!" exclaimed the forester, who was bending forward, watching every movement. "But what is that?" Three or four great flat-bottomed boats were floating down the stream, and the horseman who was scanning the landscape beckoned to the men who were in them. What was said it was impossible to tell, but what followed thrilled them with a deadly fear. "I didn't expect anything like that," muttered the forester, after watching keenly. "Do you see what they are doing? They must have seen or heard us, for they mean to come to this side of the river. See! the boats are drawn up at the bank, which slopes in such a way that the horses can be got into them!" Tyndale and his companions seemed rooted to the spot. They knew that it was dangerous to linger, yet they found it impossible to get away until they saw in which direction the horsemen would travel when once they touched the other bank. The great boats, filled with horses and men, came slowly over the water, watched by the unseen fugitives, who were fascinated with their movements. "Shall we not do well to be moving?" said Tyndale presently, when the first boat ran up to the bank and the riders, leaping out, began to land their horses. "Best to wait now, I think," said the forester quietly. "If we watch the direction they take we can go in another, and so avoid them." "Very well," Tyndale responded, and they waited in such silence that every night sound in the forest could be heard--the roar of some prowling beast breaking the silence, and the weird and startling cry of a night bird. But even that went by unnoticed in the anxiety of those minutes of watching. The last horse came on the bank, and before long, while the boats drifted back again into the current, the horsemen mounted into their saddles, and, gathering up their reins, waited for the next command. It came, for before long every horse was on the move, and steel helmets and steel trappings glanced in the moonlight as the cavalcade moved onward.