Down and down I sank,the water surging up into my nostrils and sounding in my ears;but,being in water,I was safe if it were but deep enough.Presently I struck out,and,with a stroke or two,came to the surface.But no sooner did my head show above,and Idraw a deep breath or twain,looking for my enemy,than an arbalest bolt cleft the water with a clipping sound,missing me but narrowly.
I had but time to see that there was a tumult on the bridge,and swords out (the Scots,as I afterwards heard,knocking up the arbalests that the French soldiers levelled at me).Then I dived again,and swam under water,****** towards the right and the castle rock,which ran sheer down to the moat.This course I chose because I had often noted,from the drawbridge,a jutting buttress of rock,behind which,at least,I should be out of arrow-shot.My craft was to give myself all the semblance of a drowning man,throwing up my arms,when I rose to see whereabout I was and to take breath,as men toss their limbs who cannot swim.On the second time of rising thus,I saw myself close to the jut of rock.My next dive took me behind it,and I let down my feet,close under the side of this natural buttress,to look around,being myself now concealed from the sight of those who were on the bridge.
To my surprise I touched bottom,for I had deemed that the water was very deep thereby.Next I found that I was standing on a step of hewn stone,and that a concealed staircase,cut in the rock,goes down,in that place,to the very bottom of the moat;for what purpose I know not,but so it is.{11}I climbed up the steps,shook myself,and wrung the water out of my hair,looking about the while for any sign of my enemy,who had blasphemed against my country and the Maiden.But there was nothing to see on the water save my own cloth cap floating.On the other side of the fosse,howbeit,men were launching a pleasure-boat,which lay by a stair at the foot of the further wall of the fosse.The sight of them made me glad to creep further up the steps that rounded a sharp corner,till I came as far as an iron wicket-gate,which seemed to cut off my retreat.There I stopped,deeming that the wicket must be locked.The men were now rowing the boat into the middle of the water,so,without expecting to find the gate open,I tried the handle.It turned,to my no little amazement;the gate swang lightly aside,as if its hinges had been newly oiled,and I followed the stair-case,creeping up the slimy steps in the half-dark.Up and round I went,till I was wellnigh giddy,and then I tripped and reeled so that my body struck against a heavy ironed door.Under my weight it yielded gently,and I stumbled across the threshold of a room that smelled strangely sweet and was very warm,being full of the sun,and the heat of a great fire.
"Is that you,Robin of my heart?"said a girl's voice in French;and,before I could move,a pair of arms were round my neck.Back she leaped,finding me all wet,and not the man she looked for;and there we both stood,in a surprise that prevented either of us from speaking.
She was a pretty lass,with brown hair and bright red cheeks,and was dressed all in white,being,indeed,one of the laundresses of the castle;and this warm room,fragrant with lavender,whereinto Ihad stumbled,was part of the castle laundry.A mighty fire was burning,and all the tables were covered with piles and flat baskets of white linen,sweet with scented herbs.
Back the maid stepped towards the door,keeping her eyes on mine;and,as she did not scream,I deemed that none were within hearing:
wherein I was wrong,and she had another reason for holding her peace.
"Save me,gentle maid,if you may,"I cried at last,falling on my knees,just where I stood:"I am a luckless man,and stand in much peril of my life.""In sooth you do,"she said,"if Robert Lindsay of the Scottish Archers finds you here.He loves not that another should take his place at a tryst.""Maiden,"I said,beginning to understand why the gate was unlocked,and wherefore it went so smooth on its hinges,"I fear I have slain a man,one of the King's archers.We wrestled together on the draw-bridge,and the palisade breaking,we fell into the moat,whence Iclomb by the hidden stairs.""One of the archers!"cried she,as pale as a lily,and catching at her side with her hand."Was he a Scot?""No,maid,but I am;and I pray you hide me,or show me how to escape from this castle with my life,and that speedily.""Come hither!"she said,drawing me through a door into a small,square,empty room that jutted out above the moat."The other maids are at their dinner,"she went on,"and I all alone--the season being Lent,and I under penance,and thinking of no danger."For which reason,I doubt not,namely that the others had gone forth,she had made her tryst at this hour with Robin Lindsay.But he,if he was,as she said,one of the Scottish archers that guarded the gate,was busy enough belike with the tumult on the bridge,or in seeking for the body of mine enemy.
"How to get you forth I know not,"she said,"seeing that from yonder room you pass into the kitchen and thence into the guard-room,and thence again by a passage in the wall behind the great hall,and so forth to the court,and through the gate,and thereby there is no escape:for see you the soldiers must,and will avenge their comrade."Hearing this speech,I seemed to behold myself swinging by a tow from a tree branch,a death not beseeming one of gentle blood.Up and down I looked,in vain,and then I turned to the window,thinking that,as better was not to be,I might dive thence into the moat,and take my chance of escape by the stairs on the further side.But the window was heavily barred.Yet again,if I went forth by the door,and lurked on the postern stair,there was Robin Lindsay's dirk to reckon with,when he came,a laggard,to his love-tryst.
"Stop!I have it,"said the girl;and flying into the laundry,she returned with a great bundle of white women's gear and a gown of linen,and a woman's white coif,such as she herself wore.