In either event you can say that I compelled you to stand by us, and that you have shed no man's blood; also I will give you a writing." So they talked together gloomily, and at last announced that when he and their lady went they would go also and get off as best they could.

But there was a man among them, a small farmer named Jonathan Dicksey, who thought otherwise.

This Jonathan, who held his land under Christopher, had been forced to this business of the defence of Cranwell Towers somewhat against his will, namely, by the pressure of Christopher's largest tenant, to whose daughter he was affianced.

He was a sly young man, and even during the siege, by means that need not be described, he had contrived to convey a message to the Abbot of Blossholme, telling him that had it been in his power he would gladly be in any other place.
Therefore, as he knew well, whatever had happened to others, his farm remained unharried.

Now he determined to be out of a bad business as soon as he might, for Jonathan was one of those who liked to stand upon the winning side.
Therefore, although he said "Aye, aye," more loudly than his comrades, as soon as the dusk had fallen, while the others were making ready the horses and mounting guard, Jonathan thrust a ladder across the moat at the back of the stable, and clambered along its rungs into the shelter of a cattle-shed in the meadow, and so away.
Half-an-hour later he stood before the Abbot in the cottage where he had taken up his quarters, having contrived to blunder among his people and be captured.