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