"Yes, no doubt they will try that, Tom; but the moat is over wide for
planks, and I think it more likely that they will have provided themselves
with sacks, and filled them with earth, so as to make a passage across
with them."

"As to the planks not being long enough, Master Guy, they could get over
that easy enough. They would only have to send three or four swimmers
across the moat, then thrust long beams over for those who had crossed to
fix firmly, and then lay short planks across them."

"So they would, Tom; I did not think of that. Well, at any rate, I expect
they will manage to get across the moat somehow and plant ladders against
the wall."

"And we shall chuck them down again," Tom said.

"They won't care much for that. But as long as they cannot knock a breach
in the walls I warrant that we can hold them."




CHAPTER IV

A FATAL ACCIDENT


As soon as the sun had set, the defenders gathered on the walls. Fires had
already been lighted there and cauldrons of water and pitch suspended over
them, and sacks of quicklime placed in readiness to be emptied; great