18
‘Drag him down!’ growls the sergeant, and two of his men discard their spears and rush forward to carry out his order. You snatch back on your horse’s reins and he rears up, kicking hard, his forelegs connecting with the soldiers’ chests to send them sprawling in the dirt. Their comrades are startled by your rearing horse and they back off in confusion, giving you space in which to turn him about and gallop away into a nearby alley. As you race along this deserted passageway, you glance over your shoulder and see that the reeves have recovered and they are now pursuing you. The alley turns to the right and comes to a dead end. Facing you is a three-storey townhouse with a balcony which overhangs a pair of stable doors. The lock is broken and so you pull open a door and urge your horse to enter the gloomy interior. Quickly you dismount in the darkness and wedge the doors shut with the shaft of a hammer you find discarded on the straw-covered ground. Moments later you hear the echoing footfalls of the reeves as they come running around the corner. Their sergeant orders them to check the entrance of every house bordering the cul-de-sac. Two soldiers approach and the stable doors rattle when they push against them with the butts of their spears. You wait with bated breath, fearing they will try to force them open, but they are satisfied that the doors must be bolted from the inside and they move on to check the next house. After a few minutes you hear the soldiers leaving the square. Then a yellowy light flares up behind you, and you spin around to see an old woman standing in a doorway at the top of a short flight of stone steps. She is holding a lantern in one hand and a bread knife in the other.
‘You’ve no right to be here,’ she says, her voice wavering with fear. ‘Please leave … leave my home at once.’
