But I am not yet dead.

For myself, I could pardon you; but for the outrage to my mother--" and with a sudden movement he struck Sir Rudolph in the face with all his strength with his mailed hand.
With the blood gushing from his nostrils, the knight fell backward, and Sir Cuthbert, with a bound, before the assembly could recover from their astonishment at the deed, burst through the line of men-at-arms, and sprang up the narrow staircase.

A score of men-at-arms started in pursuit; but Sir Cuthbert gained the battlements first, and without a moment's hesitation sprang upon them and plunged forward, falling into the moat fifty feet below.

Here he would have perished miserably, for in his heavy armor he was of course unable to swim a stroke, and his weight took him at once into the mud of the moat.

At its margin, however, Cnut stood awaiting him, with one end of the rope in his hand.
In an instant he plunged in, and diving to the bottom grasped Cuthbert by the body, and twisted the rope round him.