Garnache heard the sounds of their search.

So overwrought was he that there was a moment when he thought of swimming to the edge and making across the country to the north while they were hunting the meadows to the east; but he repressed the impulse and stayed on.

An eternity did it seem before those men returned and marched once more over his head.

A further eternity was it until the clatter of hoofs on the courtyard stones and their thunder on the planks above him brought him the news that Tressan was riding home.

He heard the hoofs quicken, and their loud rattle on the road that led down to the Isere, a half-mile away; and then, when the hoof-beats grew more distant, there came again the echo of voices up above.
Was it not over yet?
Dear God! would it never end?
He felt that a few moments more of this immersion and he should be done for utterly; his numbness must rob him of the power to cross the moat.
Suddenly the first welcome sound he had heard that night came to his ears.