When I had passed these, methought my hands were on fire; nevertheless, I slid down slowly and with caution, till my feet touched ground.
I was now in the dry ditch, above my head creaked and swung the dead body of the hanged marauder, but he did no whit affray me.

I ran, stooping, along the bed of the dry ditch, for many yards, stumbling over the bodies of men slain in yesterday's fight, and then, creeping out, I found a hollow way between two slopes, and thence crawled into a wood, where I lay some little space hidden by the boughs.

The smell of trees and grass and the keen air were like wine to me; I cooled my bleeding hands in the deep dew; and presently, in the dawn, I was stealing towards St.Denis, taking such cover of ditches and hedges as we had sought in our unhappy march of yesterday.

And I so sped, by favour of the Saints, that I fell in with no marauders; but reaching the windmill right early, at first trumpet-call, I was hailed by our sentinels for the only man that had won in and out of Paris, and had carried off, moreover, a prisoner, the jackanapes.

To see me, scarred, with manacles on my wrists and gyves on my ankles, weaponless, with an ape on my shoulder, was such a sight as the Scots Guard had never beheld before, and carrying me to the smith's, they first knocked off my irons, and gave me wine, ere they either asked me for my tale, or told me their own, which was a heartbreak to bear.
For no man could unfold the manner of that which had come to pass, if, at least, there were not strong treason at the root of all.