If any fail or hinder, they shall die
the death."
"Now, by the saints!" cried Richard, "is this so? And will men
follow such a leader?"
"Nay, they follow him gleefully," replied the other; "for if he be
exact to punish, he is most open-handed to reward. And if he spare
not the blood and sweat of others, he is ever liberal of his own,
still in the first front of battle, still the last to sleep. He
will go far, will Crookback Dick o' Gloucester!"
The young knight, if he had before been brave and vigilant, was now
all the more inclined to watchfulness and courage. His sudden
favour, he began to perceive, had brought perils in its train. And
he turned from the archer, and once more scanned anxiously the
market-place. It lay empty as before.
"I like not this quietude," he said. "Doubtless they prepare us
some surprise."
And, as if in answer to his remark, the archers began once more to
advance against the barricade, and the arrows to fall thick. But
there was something hesitating in the attack.
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