door. A flight of steps leading apparently to a cellar were visible.
He led the way down, the two men following, and the boys bringing
up the rear. The descent was far deeper than they had expected,
and when they reached the bottom they found themselves in a vast
arched cellar filled with barrels. From this they proceeded into
another, and again into a third.

"What are these great magazines?" Francis Vere asked in surprise.

"They are wine cellars, and there are scores similar to those you
see. Sluys is the centre of the wine trade of Flanders and Holland, and
cellars like these extend right under the wall. All the warehouses
along here have similar cellars. This end of the town was the driest,
and the soil most easily excavated. That is why the magazines for
wines are all clustered here. There is not a foot of ground behind
and under the walls at this end that is not similarly occupied,
and if the Spaniards try to drive mines to blow up the walls, they
will simply break their way into these cellars, where we can meet
them and drive them back again."

"Excellent!" Francis Vere said. "This will relieve us of the work
of countermining, which is always tiresome and dangerous, and would
be specially so here, where we should have to dive under that deep
moat outside your walls. Now we shall only have to keep a few men
on watch in these cellars. They would hear the sound of the Spanish
approaching, and we shall be ready to give them a warm reception
by the time they break in. Are there communications between these
cellars?"

"Yes, for the most part," the wine merchant said. "The cellars are