"Make straight for the keep!" said Du Guesclin, in a sharp, stern whisper.
"The two archers in front, the lady in the centre, a squire on either side, while we three knights shall bide behind and beat back those who press upon us.
So!
Now open the door, and God have us in his holy keeping!"
For a few moments it seemed that their object would be attained without danger, so swift and so silent had been their movements.
They were half-way across the bailey ere the frantic, howling peasants made a movement to stop them.
The few who threw themselves in their way were overpowered or brushed aside, while the pursuers were beaten back by the ready weapons of the three cavaliers. Unscathed they fought their way to the door of the keep, and faced round upon the swarming mob, while the squire thrust the great key into the lock.
"My God!" he cried, "it is the wrong key."
"The wrong key!"
"Dolt, fool that I am!
This is the key of the castle gate; the other opens the keep.
I must back for it!"
He turned, with some wild intention of retracing his steps, but at the instant a great jagged rock, hurled by a brawny peasant, struck him full upon the ear, and he dropped senseless to the ground.
"This is key enough for me!" quoth Hordle John, picking up the huge stone, and hurling it against the door with all the strength of his enormous body.
The lock shivered, the wood smashed, the stone flew into five pieces, but the iron clamps still held the door in its position.
Bending down, he thrust his great fingers under it, and with a heave raised the whole mass of wood and iron from its hinges.
For a moment it tottered and swayed, and then, falling outward, buried him in its ruin, while his comrades rushed into the dark archway which led to safety.
"Up the steps, Tiphaine!" cried Du Guesclin.
"Now round, friends, and beat them back!"
The mob of peasants had surged in upon their heels, but the two trustiest blades in Europe gleamed upon that narrow stair, and four of their number dropped upon the threshold.
The others gave back, and gathered in a half circle round the open door, gnashing their teeth and shaking their clenched hands at the defenders.
The body of the French squire had been dragged out by them and hacked to pieces, Three or four others had pulled John from under the door, when he suddenly bounded to his feet, and clutching one in either hand dashed them together with such force that they fell senseless across each other upon the ground.
With a kick and a blow he freed himself from two others who clung to him, and in a moment he was within the portal with his comrades.
Yet their position was a desperate one.
The peasants from far and near had been assembled for this deed of vengeance, and not less than six thousand were within or around the walls of the Chateau of Villefranche.
Ill armed and half starved, they were still desperate men, to whom danger had lost all fears: for what was death that they should shun it to cling to such a life as theirs?
The castle was theirs, and the roaring flames were spurting through the windows and flickering high above the turrets on two sides of the quadrangle.
From either side they were sweeping down from room to room and from bastion to bastion in the direction of the keep.
Faced by an army, and girt in by fire, were six men and one woman; but some of them were men so trained to danger and so wise in war that even now the combat was less unequal than it seemed.
Courage and resource were penned in by desperation and numbers, while the great yellow sheets of flame threw their lurid glare over the scene of death.
"There is but space for two upon a step to give free play to our sword-arms," said Du Guesclin.
"Do you stand with me, Nigel, upon the lowest.
France and England will fight together this night.
Sir Otto, I pray you to stand behind us with this young squire.
The archers may go higher yet and shoot over our heads.
I would that we had our harness, Nigel."
"Often have I heard my dear Sir John Chandos say that a knight should never, even when a guest, be parted from it.
Yet it will be more honor to us if we come well out of it.
We have a vantage, since we see them against the light and they can scarce see us.
It seems to me that they muster for an onslaught."
"If we can but keep them in play," said the Bohemian, "it is likely that these flames may bring us succor if there be any true men in the country."
"Bethink you, my fair lord," said Alleyne to Sir Nigel, "that we have never injured these men, nor have we cause of quarrel against them.
Would it not be well, if but for the lady's sake, to speak them fair and see if we may not come to honorable terms with them?"
"Not so, by St. Paul!" cried Sir Nigel.
"It does not accord with mine honor, nor shall it ever be said that I, a knight of England, was ready to hold parley with men who have slain a fair lady and a holy priest."
"As well hold parley with a pack of ravening wolves," said the French captain. "Ha!
Notre Dame Du Guesclin! Saint Ives! Saint Ives!"
As he thundered forth his war-cry, the Jacks who had been gathering before the black arch of the gateway rushed in madly in a desperate effort to carry the staircase.
Their leaders were a small man, dark in the face, with his beard done up in two plaits, and another larger man, very bowed in the shoulders, with a huge club studded with sharp nails in his hand.
The first had not taken three steps ere an arrow from Aylward's bow struck him full in the chest, and he fell coughing and spluttering across the threshold.