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It ran at this point in a little valley, some twenty or thirty feet deep.

On the bank not far from the castle grew a small wood, and it was in this

that Cuthbert hoped to find the passage spoken of by Gurth.

The trees and brushwood were so thick that it was apparent at once that

if the passage had ever existed it had been unused for some years.

The woodmen were obliged to chop down dozens of young saplings to make

their way up from the water towards the steeper part of the bank.

The wood was some fifty yards in length, and as it was uncertain at which

point the passage had come out, a very minute search had to be made.

"What do you think it would be like, Cnut?" Cuthbert asked.

"Like enough to a rabbit-hole, or more likely still there would be no

hole whatever. We must look for moss and greenery, for it is likely that

such would have been planted, so as to conceal the door from any

passer-by, while yet allowing a party from inside to cut their way

through it without difficulty."

After a search of two hours, Cnut decided that the only place in the

copse in which it was likely that the entrance to a passage could be

hidden, was a spot where the ground was covered thickly with ivy and

trailing plants.

"It looks level enough with the rest," Cuthbert said.

"Ay, lad, but we know not what lies behind this thick screen of ivy.

Thrust in that staff."

One of the woodmen began to probe with the end of a staff among the ivy.

For some time he was met by the solid ground, but presently the butt of

the staff went through suddenly, pitching him on his head, amidst a

suppressed laugh from his comrades.

"Here it is, if anywhere," said Cnut, and with their billhooks they at

once began to clear away the thickly grown creepers.

Five minutes' work was sufficient to show a narrow cut, some two feet

wide, in the hill side, at the end of which stood a low door.

"Here it is," said Cnut, with triumph, "and the castle is ours. Thanks,

Cuthbert, for your thought and intelligence. It has not been used lately,

that is clear," he went on. "These creepers have not been moved for

years. Shall we go and tell the earl of our discovery? What think you,

Cuthbert?"

"I think we had better not," Cuthbert said. "We might not succeed in

getting in, as the passage may have fallen farther along; but I will

speak to him and tell him that we have something on hand which may alter

his dispositions for fighting to-morrow."

Cuthbert made his way to the earl, who had taken possession of a small

cottage a short distance from the castle.

"What can I do for you?" Sir Walter said.

"I want to ask you, sir, not to attack the castle to-morrow until you see

a white flag waved from the keep."

"But how on earth is a white flag to be raised from the keep?"

"It may be," Cuthbert said, "that I have some friends inside who will be

able to make a diversion in our favour. However sir, it can do no harm

if you will wait till then, and may save many lives. At what hour do you

mean to attack?"

"The bridges and all other preparations to assist us across the moat will

be ready to-night. We will advance then under cover of darkness, and as

soon after dawn as may be attack in earnest."

"Very well, sir," Cuthbert said. "I trust that within five minutes after

your bugle has sounded, the white flag will make its appearance on the

keep, but it cannot do so until after you have commenced an attack, or at

least a pretence of an attack."

Two or three hours before daylight Cuthbert accompanied Cnut and

twenty-five picked men of the foresters to the copse. They were provided

with crowbars, and all carried heavy axes. The door was soon prised open.

It opened silently and without a creak.

"It may be," Cnut said, "that the door has not been opened as you say for

years, but it is certain," and he placed his torch to the hinges, "that

it has been well oiled within the last two or three days. No doubt the

baron intended to make his escape this way, should the worst arrive. Now

that we have the door open we had better wait quiet until the dawn

commences. The earl will blow his bugle as a signal for the advance; it

will be another ten minutes before they are fairly engaged, and that will

be enough for us to break open any doors that there may be between this

and the castle, and to force our way inside."

It seemed a long time waiting before the dawn fairly broke--still longer

before the earl's bugle was heard to sound the attack. Then the band,

headed by Cnut and two or three of the strongest of the party, entered

the passage.

Cuthbert had had some misgivings as to his mother's injunctions to take

no part in the fray, and it cannot be said that in accompanying the

foresters he obeyed the letter of her instructions. At the same time as

he felt sure that the effect of a surprise would be complete and

crushing, and that the party would gain the top of the keep without any

serious resistance, he considered the risk was so small as to justify

him in accompanying the foresters.

The passage was some five feet high, and little more than two feet wide.

It was dry and dusty, and save the marks on the ground of a human foot

going and returning, doubtless that of the man who had oiled the lock the

day before, the passage appeared to have been unused from the time that

it left the hands of its builders.

Passing along for some distance they came to another strong oaken

door. This, like the last, yielded to the efforts of the crowbars of

the foresters, and they again advanced. Presently they came to a

flight of steps.

"We must now be near the castle," Cnut said. "In fact, methinks I can

hear confused noises ahead."

Mounting the steps, they came to a third door; this was thickly studded

with iron, and appeared of very great strength. Fortunately the lock was

upon their side, and they were enabled to shoot the bolt; but upon the

other side the door was firmly secured by large bolts, and it was fully

five minutes before the foresters could succeed in opening it. It was

not without a good deal of noise that they at last did so; and several

times they paused, fearing that the alarm must have been given in the

castle. As, however, the door remained closed, they supposed that the

occupants were fully engaged in defending themselves from the attacks of

the earl's party.

When the door gave way, they found hanging across in front of them a very

thick arras, and pressing this aside they entered a small room in the

thickness of the wall of the keep. It contained the merest slit for

light, and was clearly unused. Another door, this time unfastened, led

into a larger apartment, which was also at present unoccupied. They could

hear now the shouts of the combatants without, the loud orders given by

the leaders on the walls, the crack, as the stones hurled by the

mangonels struck the walls, and the ring of steel as the arrows struck

against steel cap and cuirass.

"It is fortunate that all were so well engaged, or they would certainly

have heard the noise of our forcing the door, which would have brought

all of them upon us. As it is, we are in the heart of the keep. We have

now but to make a rush up these winding steps, and methinks we shall find

ourselves on the battlements. They will be so surprised, that no real

resistance can be offered to us. Now let us advance."

So saying Cnut led the way upstairs, followed by the foresters, Cuthbert,

as before, allowing five or six of them to intervene between him and the

leader. He carried his short sword and a quarterstaff, a weapon by no

means to be despised in the hands of an active and experienced player.

Presently, after mounting some fifty or sixty steps, they issued on the

platform of the keep.

Here were gathered some thirty or forty men, who were so busied in

shooting with crossbows, and in working machines casting javelins,

stones, and other missives upon the besiegers, that they were unaware of

the addition to their numbers until the whole of the foresters had

gathered on the summit, and at the order of Cnut suddenly fell upon them

with a loud shout.

Taken wholly by surprise by the foe, who seemed to have risen from the

bowels of the earth by magic, the soldiers of the Baron of Wortham

offered but a feeble resistance. Some were cast over the battlement of

the keep, some driven down staircases, others cut down, and then

Cuthbert, fastening a small white flag he had prepared to his

quarter-staff, waved it above the battlements.

Even now the combatants on the outer wall were in ignorance of what had

happened in the keep; so great was the din that the struggle which had

there taken place had passed unnoticed; and it was not until the

fugitives, rushing out into the courtyard, shouted that the keep had been

captured, that the besieged became aware of the imminence of the danger.

Hitherto the battle had been going well for the defenders of the castle.

The Baron of Wortham was indeed surprised at the feebleness of the

assault. The arrows which had fallen in clouds upon the first day's

attack upon the castle among his soldiers were now comparatively few and

ineffective. The besiegers scarcely appeared to push forward their

bridges with any vigour, and it seemed to him that a coldness had fallen

upon them, and that some disagreement must have arisen between the

foresters and the earl, completely crippling the energy of the attack.

When he heard the words shouted from the courtyard below he could not

believe his ears. That the keep behind should have been carried by the

enemy appeared to him impossible. With a roar he called upon the bravest

of his men to follow, and rushing across the courtyard, rapidly ascended

the staircase. The movement was observed from the keep, and Cnut and a

few of his men, stationed themselves with their battle-axes at the top of

various stairs leading below.

The signal shown by Cuthbert had not passed unobserved. The earl, who had

given instructions to his followers to make a mere feint of attacking,

now blew the signal for the real onslaught. The bridges were rapidly run

across the moat, ladders were planted, and the garrison being paralyzed

and confused by the attack in their rear, as well as hindered by the

arrows which now flew down upon them from the keep above, offered but a

feeble resistance, and the assailants, led by Sir Walter himself, poured

over the walls.

Now there was a scene of confusion and desperate strife. The baron had

just gained the top of the stairs, and was engaged in a fierce conflict

with Cnut and his men, when the news reached him that the wall was

carried from without. With an execration he again turned and rushed down

the stairs, hoping by a vigorous effort to cast back the foe.

It was, however, all too late: his followers, disheartened and alarmed,

fought without method or order in scattered groups of threes and fours.

They made their last stand in corners and passages. They knew there was

but little hope of mercy from the Saxon foresters, and against these they

fought to the last. To the Norman retainers, however, of the earl they

offered a less determined resistance, throwing down their arms and

surrendering at discretion.

The baron, when fiercely fighting, was slain by an arrow from the keep

above, and with his fall the last resistance ceased. A short time was

spent in searching the castle, binding the prisoners, and carrying off

the valuables that the baron had collected in his raids. Then a light was

set to the timbers, the granaries were fired, and in a few minutes the

smoke wreathing out of the various loopholes and openings told the

country round that the stronghold had fallen, and that they were free

from the oppressor at last.

CHAPTER IV.

THE CRUSADES.

Warm thanks and much praise were bestowed upon Cuthbert for his share in

the capture of the castle, and the earl, calling the foresters round him,

then and there bestowed freedom upon any of them who might have been

serfs of his, and called upon all his knights and neighbours to do the

same, in return for the good service which they had rendered.

This was willingly done, and a number of Cnut's party who had before

borne the stigma of escaped serfs were now free men.

We are too apt to forget, in our sympathy with the Saxons, that fond as

they were of freedom for themselves, they were yet severe masters, and

kept the mass of the people in a state of serfage. Although their laws

provided ample justice as between Saxon man and man, there was no justice

for the unhappy serfs, who were either the original inhabitants or

captives taken in war, and who were distinguished by a collar of brass or

iron round their neck.

Cnut's party had indeed long got rid of these badges, the first act of a

serf when he took to the woods being always to file off his collar; but

they were liable when caught to be punished, even by death, and were

delighted at having achieved their freedom.

"And what can I do for you, Cuthbert?" Sir Walter said, as they rode

homewards. "It is to you that I am indebted: in the first place for the

rescue of my daughter, in the second for the capture of that castle,

which I doubt me much whether we should ever have taken in fair fight had

it not been for your aid."

"Thanks, Sir Walter," the lad replied. "At present I need nothing, but

should the time come when you may go to the wars, I would fain ride

with you as your page, in the hope of some day winning my spurs also in

the field."

"So shall it be," the earl said, "and right willingly. But who

have we here?"

As he spoke a horseman rode up and presented a paper to the earl.

"This is a notice," the earl said, after perusing it, "that King Richard

has determined to take up the cross, and that he calls upon his nobles

and barons to join him in the effort to free the holy sepulchre from the