Martin de Pateshulle, also, as one of those justices whose writs had been so rudely repudiated by Fulke, was summoned to the council. This worthy ecclesiastic, who was none the worse for his overthrow by William de Breauté’s horsemen, was much concerned over the fate of his niece.
In him Ralph, tortured by anxiety which he was striving to drown in work, found a friend and ready sympathizer.
"My son," said the archdeacon one day at the close of a long sitting of the council of war, "thou toilest in this business both as a servant of Holy Church and as a gallant knight for the rescue of fair lady."
"Indeed, venerable father, it is only when my whole heart is busy with my work that it finds peace. I am torn with doubts and fears concerning her whom I love. Could I but have one word, one token from her! Could I but hear something of her, were it even ill news! But this silence, it ofttimes is more than I can bear."
John de Standen, still busy at the table over a rough sketch, looked up at these words.
"Sir Knight," he said, "thou meanest what thou sayest? Hast a stout heart? Canst bear ill news?"
Ralph sprang from his seat, and gripped the king’s miner by the arm till he winced.
"Speak, man, I conjure thee! Thou hast heard aught?"
"Speech is just what is forbidden to me," replied John. "My lips are sealed. All the message I have for thee is: ’Haste, or it may be too late!’ Ask me no more."
On the twenty-second of June 1224, the king arrived at Bedford, and the siege of the castle commenced almost immediately. Outside the town, on the Northampton road, pavilions were pitched for himself, for Hubert de Burgh the justiciary, and other great officers, while the troops and their officers, Ralph de Beauchamp among them, were quartered in rude shelters near the castle, or billeted upon the townsfolk, that they might be ready to repel any sortie which the besieged might make with a view of burning the engines of war. Close to these latter were encamped the men who worked them, together with the miners, carpenters, and other artificers ready for their respective turn of duty.
Before any hostile movement was commenced, however, the king, in due form, summoned the castle to surrender. An ecclesiastic was detailed for the purpose; for priests in those days often performed strange functions.