The Three Mules Left Stonewatch Before The Bell

The first man to say the gate would hold had never stood beneath it. When I abandoned Stonewatch in winter, I expected the three mules to carry grain and spare tack before the fire reached the storehouse. Instead, they bolted through the yard before the bell, and forty-two men followed me on foot.

The chapel bell never sounded; its rope had frozen to the tower. I left the keep, the grain, and the animals behind, and reached the road with less than I had planned to carry. The mules were gone before the march began.