From the long, narrow stone-paved Armory Court, and connecting itwith the inner Buttery Court, ran a narrow arched passage-way, inwhich was a picket-gate, closed at night and locked from within.
It was in this arched passage-way that, according to littleRobert Ingoldsby's report, the bachelors were lying in wait forMyles. Gascoyne's plan was that Myles should enter the courtalone, the Knights of the Rose lying ambushed behind the angle ofthe armory building until the bachelors should show themselves.
It was not without trepidation that Myles walked alone into thecourt, which happened then to be silent and empty. His heart beatmore quickly than it was wont, and he gripped his cudgel behindhis back, looking sharply this way and that, so as not to betaken unawares by a flank movement of his enemies. Midway in thecourt he stopped and hesitated for a moment; then he turned asthough to enter the armory. The next moment he saw the bachelorscome pouring out from the archway.
Instantly he turned and rushed back towards where his friends layhidden, shouting: "To the rescue! To the rescue!""Stone him!" roared Blunt. "The villain escapes!
He stopped and picked up a cobble-stone as he spoke, flinging itafter his escaping prey. It narrowly missed Myles's head; had itstruck him, there might have been no more of this story to tell.
"To the rescue! To the rescue!" shouted Myles's friends inanswer, and the next moment he was surrounded by them. Then heturned, and swinging his cudgel, rushed back upon his foes.
The bachelors stopped short at the unexpected sight of the ladswith their cudgels. For a moment they rallied and drew theirknives; then they turned and fled towards their former place ofhiding.
One of them turned for a moment, and flung his knife at Myleswith a deadly aim; but Myles, quick as a cat, ducked his body,and the weapon flew clattering across the stony court. Then hewho had flung it turned again to fly, but in his attempt he haddelayed one instant too long. Myles reached him with a long-armstroke of his cudgel just as he entered the passage-way, knockinghim over like a bottle, stunned and senseless.
The next moment the picket-gate was banged in their faces and thebolt shot in the staples, and the Knights of the Rose were leftshouting and battering with their cudgels against the palings.
By this time the uproar of fight had aroused those in the roomsand offices fronting upon the Armory Court; heads were thrustfrom many of the windows with the eager interest that a fightalways evokes.
"Beware!" shouted Myles. "Here they come again!" He bore backtowards the entrance of the alley-way as he spoke, those behindhim scattering to right and left, for the bachelors had rallied,and were coming again to the attack, shouting.
They were not a moment too soon in this retreat, either, for thenext instant the pickets flew open, and a volley of stones flewafter the retreating Knights of the Rose. One smote Wilkes uponthe head, knocking him down headlong. Another struck Myles uponhis left shoulder, benumbing his arm from the finger-tips to thearmpit, so that he thought at first the limb was broken.
"Get ye behind the buttresses!" shouted those who looked downupon the fight from the windows-- "get ye behind the buttresses!"And in answer the lads, scattering like a newly-flushed covey ofpartridges, fled to and crouched in the sheltering angles ofmasonry to escape from the flying stones.
And now followed a lull in the battle, the bachelors fearing toleave the protection of the arched passage-way lest their retreatshould be cut off, and the Knights of the Rose not daring to quitthe shelter of the buttresses and angles of the wall lest theyshould be knocked down by the stones.
