They were just crossing the road leading north from Aldersgate when they heard a scream and a clashing of swords a short distance away.
“Come, Albert, some evil deed is being done!” Edgar exclaimed, and, drawing his sword, ran at the top of his speed in the direction of the sound, accompanied by Albert. They soon arrived at the top of a street leading off the main road. A short distance down it a number of men were engaged in conflict; two of these, hearing the footsteps, turned round, and with a savage oath, seeing that the new-comers were but lads, fell upon them, thinking to cut them down without difficulty. Their over- confidence proved their ruin. Edgar caught the descending blow on his sword, close up to the hilt, and as his opponent raised his arm to repeat the stroke, ran him through the body.
“Do you want help, Albert?” Edgar cried, as the man fell.
“No, I think that I can manage him,” Albert said, quietly, and a moment later slashed his opponent deeply across the cheek. The fellow turned and took to his heels, roaring lustily. One of the other men, who was stooping over a prostrate figure, with his dagger raised, paused for a moment to look round on hearing the howl of his comrade, and as he did so Edgar's sword fell on his wrist with such force that hand and dagger both fell to the ground. The remaining ruffian, who was roughly endeavouring to stifle the shrieks of a young girl, seeing himself alone with two adversaries, also darted off and plunged into a narrow alley a few yards away.
Edgar paid no more attention to them, but exclaimed to the girclass="underline" “Cease your cries, I pray you, maiden, and help me to see what has happened to your companion. I trust that he is unharmed, and that we have arrived in time to prevent those villains from carrying out their intentions.” He stooped over the fallen man. “Are you hurt badly, sir?” he asked. The answer was an effort on the part of the person he addressed to rise.
“I am hurt, but I think not sorely.” He was unable for the moment to rise, for the man whom Edgar last struck lay across him. Edgar at once hauled the moaning wretch off him, and held out his hand to the other, who grasped it with more heartiness than he had expected, and rose without difficulty to his feet.
“Where is my daughter?” he exclaimed.
[Illustration: “IN A MOMENT EDGAR'S SWORD FELL ON THE RUFFIAN'S WRIST.”]
“She is here and unhurt, I trust,” Albert replied. “The villain released her and ran off, and I saw her figure sway, and ran forward just in time to save her from falling. I think she has but swooned.”
“Thanks be to the saints!” the stranger exclaimed. “Gentlemen, I cannot thank you at present for the service that you have rendered me, but of that I will speak later. Know you any place where you can take my child?”
“We are strangers, sir; but there should surely be some hostelry near where travellers could put up outside the walls.”
The noise of the combat had aroused some of the neighbours, and on inquiry Edgar ascertained that there was an inn but a short distance away.
“Let me carry the maid, Albert. Her weight would be naught to me.”
Albert gladly relinquished his charge, whose dead weight hanging on his arms was already trying him. Edgar raised her across his shoulder.
“Albert,” he said, “I know you have a piece of thin cord in your pocket. I pray you twist it round that man's arm as hard as you can pull it, and fasten it tightly. I have shorn off his hand, and he would very speedily bleed to death. If you staunch the wound he may last till his comrades come back, as they doubtless will after we have left; they will carry him away and maybe save his life. He is a villainous ruffian, no doubt, but 'tis enough for me that I have one death on my hands to-night.”
“He is dead already,” Albert said, as he leant over the man and placed his hand on his heart. “He must have been wounded by the traveller before we came up.”
“Well, it cannot be helped,” Edgar replied, as he walked on with his burden.
“Did you see aught, kind sirs,” their companion said, “of a servitor with three horses?”
“Nothing whatever,” Albert answered, “though methought I heard horses' hoofs going down the road as we ran along; but I paid small attention to them, thinking only of arriving in time to save someone from being maltreated.”
“I believe that he was in league with the robbers,” the man said. “But,” and his voice faltered, “give me your arm, I pray you. My wound is deeper than I thought, and my head swims.”
Albert with difficulty assisted the man to the entrance of the hostelry, for at each step he leant more heavily upon him. The door was shut, but the light from the casement showed that those within had not yet retired to bed. Edgar struck on the door loudly with the handle of his dagger.
“Who is it that knocks?”
“Gentlemen, with a wounded man, who, with his daughter, have been beset by knaves within a hundred yards of your door.”
Some bolts were undrawn after some little delay, and a man appeared, having a sword in his hand, with two servitors behind him similarly armed.
“We are quiet people, my host,” Edgar said. “Stand not on questioning. Suffice that there is a wounded man who is spent from loss of blood, and a young maid who has swooned from terror.”
There was a tone of command in Edgar's voice, and the host, seeing that he had to do with persons of quality, murmured excuses on the ground that the neighbourhood was a rough one.
“You need hardly have told us that,” Edgar said. “Our plight speaks for itself. Call your wife, I pray you, or female servants; they will know what to do to bring the young maid to herself. But tell her to let the girl know as soon as she opens her eyes that her father is alive, and is, I trust, not seriously wounded.”
The landlord called, and a buxom woman came out from a room behind. Her husband hastily told her what was required.
“Carry her in here, sir, I pray you,” the woman said. “I will speedily bring her round.”
Edgar followed her into the room that she had left, which was a kitchen, and laid her down on a settle. Two maids who were standing there uttered exclamations of surprise and pity as the girl was carried in.
“Hold your tongues, wenches, and do not make a noise! Margaret, fetch me cold water, and do you, Elizabeth, help me to unlace the young lady's bodice,” for the light in the kitchen enabled her to see at once that the girl was well dressed.
As soon as Edgar had laid her down, he hurried out of the kitchen, moving his arm uneasily as he did so, having discovered to his surprise that the weight of an insensible girl, though but some fourteen years old, was much more than he had dreamt of. In a parlour in front he found Albert and the landlord cutting off the doublet of the wounded man, so as to get at his shoulder, where a great patch of blood showed the location of the wound. He was some forty years old; his dress was quiet but of good quality, and Edgar judged him to be a London trader. His face was very white, but he was perfectly sensible. One of the servitors ran in with a cup of wine. The wounded man was able to lift it to his lips and to empty it at a draught.
“That is better!” he murmured, and then he did not speak again until the landlord, with considerable skill, bandaged up the shoulder.
“You have had a narrow escape,” he said. “There is a sword-thrust just below your collar-bone. An inch or two lower and it would have gone hard with you; a little more to the left and it would have pierced your throat.”
“It was a dagger wound,” the man said. “I was knocked down by a blow from a sword which fell full on my head, but luckily I had iron hoops in my cap. One man knelt upon me, and endeavoured to strike me through the throat. I fought so hard that one of his comrades came to his assistance, and I thought that the end had come, when he sprung suddenly up. The other attempted more furiously than before to finish me, but striking almost blindly he twice missed me altogether, and the third time, by a sudden twist, I took a blow on my shoulder that would otherwise have pierced my throat. When he raised his dagger again something flashed. I saw his hand with the dagger he held in it drop off, and then the man himself fell on me, and I was like to be stifled with his weight, when my preserver hauled him off me.”