About noon
` And how did you feel ? ' said Dan . ` Very weary ; but I did heartily pray for my schoolmate Hugh his health . About noon I heard horses in the valley , and the three men loosed my ropes and fled out , and De Aquila 's men rode up . Gilbert de Aquila came with them , for it was his boast that , like his father , he forgot no man that served him . He was little , like his father , but terrible , with a nose like an eagle 's nose and yellow eyes like an eagle . He rode tall warhorses -- roans , which he bred himself -- and he could never abide to be helped into the saddle .