accompany him at once, and sent others to the sheds to ask if he had been
seen there, then went up to the top of the inner wall and crossed the
bridge at the back.

[Illustration: "SIR EUSTACE GAVE A LOUD CRY, FOR LYING AT THE BOTTOM OF
THE STAIR WAS THE FORM OF HIS SON."]

"Have any of you seen aught of my son Henry?" he asked the men there.

"No, my lord," one said in reply. "I marked him by our side just before
the French got a footing at the other end of the wall, but I saw him not
afterwards."

"He ran towards the steps at the corner there," Sir Eustace said, "with a
message from me that the inner doors were to be closed. Come along, men,"
he said to those with torches, and going to the corner of the wall
descended the steps, which were steep and narrow. He took a torch from one
of the men and held it over his head. As he neared the bottom he gave a
low cry and ran down the last few steps, where, lying at the bottom, was
the form of his son. He was stretched at full length, and there was a
terrible gash on his forehead. The knight knelt beside him and raised his
head, from which the steel cap had fallen; there was a deep stain of blood
on the pavement beneath. He placed his hand on the boy's heart and his ear
to his lips, and the men with the torches stood silently round. It was but
too evident what had happened. In his haste to carry the message Henry's
foot had slipped, and he had fallen headforemost down the steep steps, his
head coming in contact with the edge of one of them. Without a word Sir
Eustace raised the boy gently in his arms. His face was sufficient to tell
the men the news; their young lord was dead.