"Ho! for Sir Samkin Aylward!' cried a rough voice among the archers, and a roar of laughter greeted their new leader.
'By my hilt!' said the old bowman, 'I never thought to lead a wing in a stricken field. Stand close, camarades, for by these finger-bones! we must play the man this day.'
'Come hither, Alleyne,' said Sir Nigel, walking back to the edge of the cliff which formed the rear of their positio. 'And you, Norbury,' he continued, beckoning to the squire of Sir Oliver, 'do you also come here.'
The two squires hurried across to him, and the three stood looking down into the rocky ravine which lay a hundred an fifty feet beneath them.
'The prince must hear of how things are with us,' said the knight. 'Another onfall we may withstand, but they are many and we are few, so that the time must come when we can no longer form line across the hill. Yet if help were brought us we might hold the crest until it comes. See yonder horses which stray among the rocks beneath us?'
'I see them, my fair lord.'
'And see yonder path which winds along the hill upon the further end of the valley?'
'I see it.'
'Were you on those horses, and riding up yonder track steep and rough as it is, I think that ye might gain the valley beyond. Then on to the prince, and tell him how we fare.'
'But, my fair lord, how can we hope to reach the horses ' asked Norbury.
'Ye cannot go round to them, for they would be upon ye ere ye could come to them. Think ye that ye have heart enough to clamber down this cliff?'
'Had we but a rope.'
'There is one here. It is but one hundred feet long, and for the rest ye must trust to God and to your fingers. Can you try it, Alleyne?'
