So little Jarl made his way up to the bowery, where was a minstrel's window
looking down into the hall. Sticking out his head so that he might see down to
where the council was sitting, "If you give up the castle, I will tell Duke
Jarl!" he cried. Hearing his young master's voice, the Constable raised his
eyes; but not able to see him for tears in them, called out: "Tell him quick,
for here it is all against one! Only for one day more have they promised to
follow my bidding, and keep the carrion crows from coming to Jarl's nest."

And even as he spoke came the renewed cry of attack, and the answering shout
of" Jarl, Jarl!" from the defenders upon the walls. Then all leapt up,
over-turning the council-board, and ran out to the battlements to carry on
with what courage was left to them a hopeless contest for one more day.

Little Duke Jarl remained like a beating heart in the great empty keep. He ran
wildly from room to room, calling in rage and desperation on Old Jarl to
return and fight. From roof to basement he ran, commanding the spirit of his
ancestor to appear, till at last he found himself in the deepest cellars of
all. Down there he could hear but faintly the sound of the fighting; yet it
seemed to him that through the stone he could hear the slow booming of the
sea, and as he went deeper into the castle's foundations the louder had grown
its note. "Does the sea come in all the way under the castle?" he wondered.
"Oh that it would sap the foundations and sink castle and all, rather than let
them give up old Jarl's stronghold to his enemies!"

All was quite dark here, where the castle stood embedded; but now and then
little Duke Jarl could feel a puff of wind on his face, and presently he was
noticing how it came, as if timed to the booming of the sea underneath:
whenever came the sound of a breaking wave, with it came a draught of air. He
wondered if, so low down, there might not be some secret opening to the shore.