To their dismay they found that this was closed.

The French commanders knew that Sir Walter Manny or Salisbury might ere this be pressing forward to relieve the town, and that, finding that it had fallen, they might attempt to recapture it by a sudden attack.

While permitting therefore the usual licence, after a successful assault, to the main body of their forces, they had placed a certain number of their best troops on the walls, giving them a handsome largess to make up for their loss of the festivities.
At first Walter and his friend feared that their retreat was cut off for the night, but several other people presently arrived, and the officer on guard said, coming out, "You must wait a while; the last batch have only just gone, and I cannot keep opening and closing the gate; in half an hour I will let you out." Before that time elapsed some fifty or sixty people, anxious to return to their villages, gathered round the gate.
"Best lay aside your steel cap, Ralph, before we join them," Walter said.

"In the dim light of that lamp none will notice that we have head-gear, but if it were to glint upon the steel cap the officer might take us for deserters and question us as to who we are." Presently the officer came out from the guard-room again.

There was a forward movement of the little crowd, and Walter and Ralph closed in to their midst.