It was still broad daylight when, at half-past six, Oswald left the inn and sauntered, at a leisurely pace, down the street.

His eye at once fell on Roger's tall figure, and he also saw two retainers of the earl, loitering about.

They were not the same men he had seen in the morning, but doubtless had relieved those on watch.
He took the first turning off the main street and, after passing through several lanes, found himself at the foot of the town wall.

A narrow lane ran between it and a row of small houses.

No one was about, and he thought that Roger would take advantage of the loneliness of the spot, to endeavour to rid him of his followers, whose footsteps he could hear some distance behind him.