Just as the grey dawn broke they passed the gate, which, there being
peace in the land, was already open. Fifteen minutes later they were
on the lonely Westleton Heath, where for a while naught was to be heard
save the scream of the curlew and the rush of the wings of the wild-duck
passing landward from the sea. Presently, however, another sound reached
their ears, that of horses galloping behind them. Grey Dick pulled rein
and listened.
"Seven, I think, not more," he said. "Now, master, do you stand or run,
for these will be Clavering horses?"
Hugh thought for a moment. His aim was not to fight, but to get through
to London. Yet if he fled the pursuers would raise the country on them
as they came, so that in the end they must be taken, since those who
followed would find fresh horses.
"It seems best to stand," he said.
"So say I," answered Grey Dick; and led the way to a little hillock by
the roadside on which grew some wind-bent firs.
Here they dismounted and gave their horses into the keeping of one man,
while Grey Dick and the others drew their bows from the cases and strung
them. Scarcely had they done so when the mist, lifting in the morning
breeze, showed them their pursuers--seven of them, as Dick had
said--headed by one of the French knights, and riding scattered, between
two and three hundred yards away. At the same moment a shout told them
that they had been seen.
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