We can therefore
send the other six to bed after supper is over, for we cannot suppose that
they would be so daring as to force their way into the palace at any other
point."
As soon as it was dark Ulred and six of the soldiers were placed in the
garden; the others were directed to hold themselves in readiness to take
their post in the banqueting-hall. Just before the bell sounded for supper
Wulf was told that a boy desired to speak to him at the gate. He hurried
out, and, as he expected, saw Ulf waiting there.
"What news, Ulf,--hast seen Walter Fitz-Urse?"
"I have not seen him, my lord, but I am sure that I heard him speak. There
was a great crowd in the square after the king had entered, and among those
round me I heard one man speak to another in a foreign tongue, and the
voice was assuredly that of Walter Fitz-Urse. It was but two or three words
he said, but having listened to him for well-nigh half an hour that night
by the river, I am certain I was not mistaken in the voice. Close beside me
were two cowled monks, and I believe that it was one of them who spoke. I
looked round at the faces of the other men standing near, but they all
seemed honest countrymen or town folk. I should have followed the monks to
see where they went, but at that moment there was a rush among the crowd to
see some mummers who had just commenced their antics, and I was swept along
by it; and though I have been searching ever since, and have so stared up
into the cowls of monks, that I have been cursed as an insolent boy many
times, I have not seen our man.
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