Nevertheless my father thought of little danger but to the herds, and so had them driven into the sheds from the home fields, and set the men their watches as he had more than once done before in like alarms.
Presently I was awakened, for I had gone to rest before the message came, by the hoarse call of a horn and the savage barking of the dogs.

I heard the hall doors shut and open once or twice as men passed in and out, and in the hall was the rattle of weapons as the men took them from their places on the walls, but I heard no voices raised more than usual.

Then I got out of my bed and tried to open the sliding doors that would let me out on the high place from my father's chamber, where I always slept now, but I could not move them.

So I went back to my place and listened.
What was happening I must tell, therefore, as Owen has told me, for I saw nothing to speak of.
As the horn was blown, one of the men who had been on guard came into the hall hastily and spoke to my father.
"The house is beset, Lord.

Stuf blew the horn and bade me tell you.
There are men all round the stockade." "Outlaws ?" The man shook his head.
"We think not, Lord.