“They are ours, they are ours!” said Douglas. “The prince must be in the neighborhood.”
“It is a wonder to me,” said the officer; “they are on watch, and none of them calls, though we march noisily.”
Here the thickets ended, and the forest was clean of undergrowth. The men approached and saw four persons standing in a group, one at the side of the other, as if they were looking at something on the ground. From the head of each one rose a dark strip directly upward.
“Your worthiness!” said the officer at once, “these men are hanging.”
“That is true!” answered Douglas.
They sprang forward, and stood for a while near the corpses. Four foot-soldiers were hanging together by ropes, like a bunch of thrushes, their feet barely an inch above the ground, for they were on the lower branches.
D
