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Page 266
Mingled yells of consternation and triumph proved that Walter's warning had come just in time. It was fortunate that the track they were following widened somewhat as it met the road. There was room for Sybelle and the men behind her to turn their horses. Ill, however, was mixed with the good. There was also room for the group on the road to launch a barrage of bolts. Walter heard more than one horse scream, and two bolted off the path directly southward, away from the pain that had struck them.
''Into the woods!" Walter shouted, turning Beau toward the trees, but holding him back.
He saw Sybelle's blond mare crash through the brush. Directly behind her, shielding her as well as he could with his body, came Tostig. Several other men followed, but two of those who had come first to the road had held their horses steady and were charging the bowmen. Walter wrenched Beau around again, calling to the men nearest him to charge. The pursuers, unable to recock the slow crossbows in time, dropped them and reached for their swords. For several it was too late, and the others backed away to give themselves time. Walter and five others were on them, however, and they turned and fled.
"Back! Back!" Walter roared. "Those behind us will take Lady Sybelle."
They rode back into the byroad in frantic haste and, in fact, met the party that had been behind them hesitating as to whether to follow the plain trail that Sybelle and her guards had made into the woods or go up to the road from which sounds of the brief confrontation must have come. Even if Walter and his men had wished to do so, it would have been impossible to check their horses in time. In any case, they did not wish to avoid a fight. All were furious with fear and confusion, and their blood was up owing to the aborted battle on the road. Shrieking blasphemies and obscenities, they charged into the group.
The men who had been pursuing were not taken completely by surprise. They had heard horses coming fast, but they had not been sure, until they heard the yells of rage, that those who were approaching were not the other part of their own troop. Thus, their response was not concerted. Several, who had been carrying wound crossbows on the chance of getting in a shot at the fleeing group, fired their weapons without much

 
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