"What hast thou suffered, then? Where are the baron and his men?" "Burnt in the Dismal Swamp?" "Burnt?" "Yes, burnt; I speak good French do I not?" "Owen, Owen," cried the old Raoul, "do not mistake thy friends for foes! tell us what dreadful event has happened, to disturb thy reason." "Would it were but disturbed! Oh that I should have lived to see this day!" "Tell us," cried young Tristam, "tell us, Owen." "A fate was on us, as on the Egyptians of old; only they perished by water, we by fire." "But how?" "Ordgar the guide, whom we thought we had secured so opportunely, led us into the marshes and left us therein; and while we were there, the English fired the reeds and bulrushes on all sides." "And the baron?" "He and all have perished; I only have escaped to tell thee. Where are the rest who were left behind?" "Here they are," cried Tristam, as a group of old warriors approached. "Come, Roger, Jocelyn, Jolliffe--come hear the news," cried the boy. "Oh, come and hear them; can they be true? All burnt? all dead?" The horror-struck Normans soon learnt the fatal truth from Owen of Bayeux, and all their stoical fortitude was shaken. "I was one of the last on the track, and saved only by a mere chance, or the grace of St. Owen, my patron. I had dropped my quiver of arrows, and had gone back a few steps to fetch it; they brought me to the edge of the reedy marsh, and I was just returning, having found the quiver, when I heard a cry, followed by echoes as from a chain of sentinels all round the marsh--'Fire the reeds!' I ran back to the main land, climbed a tree which stood handy, and saw the marsh burst into fire in a hundred spots. It was lighted all round, while our men were in the midst. A chain of enemies surrounded it. I did my best to warn our lord or to die with him. I penetrated the marsh a little distance, when the flames beat me back--man can't fight fire." "Let us go to the castle, take what we can carry, and fly," said Raoul; "they will be here soon, if they have destroyed our men; and there will be no safety nearer than Warwick for us." "Can we abandon our post?" asked one. "Not till we are sure all is lost," said another. "Tristam, thou must remain here and watch, and warn us if any approach." "But how long shall I stay?" sobbed the alarmed boy. "Nay, he is too young," cried the fugitive from the marsh; "besides, it is needless. I know they are all coming upon us--they are thousands strong instead of hundreds, as that liar, the guide, stated. We must fly ourselves, for the time, and bid the monks, the women, and children to fly also." "Shall we burn the castle, lest it fall into their hands as a stronghold?" "Nay, that were to give up all; we shall return thither again, and that soon; leave it open for them. The Norman lion will prove more than a match for the English wolf in the long run." "Onward, then--home--home." And the dispirited men returned to the castle.