CHAPTER III.
THE CAPTURE OF WORTHAM HOLD.
Upon his return home, after relating to his mother the events of themorning's conflict, Cuthbert took his way to the cottage inhabited by anold man who had in his youth been a mason.
"Have I not heard, Gurth," he said, "that you helped to build the Castleof Wortham?"
"No, no, young sir," he said; "old as I am, I was a child when thecastle was built. My father worked at it, and it cost him, and manyothers, his life."
"And how was that, prithee?" asked Cuthbert.
"He was, with several others, killed by the baron, the grandfather ofthe present man, when the work was finished."
"But why was that, Gurth?"
"We were but Saxon swine," said Gurth bitterly, "and a few of us more orless mattered not. We were then serfs of the baron. But my mother fledwith me on the news of my father's death. For years we remained far awaywith some friends in a forest near Oxford. Then she pined for her nativeair, and came back and entered the service of the franklin."
"But why should your mother have taken you away?" Cuthbert asked.
"She always believed, Master Cuthbert, that my father was killed by thebaron to prevent him giving any news of the secrets of the castle. Heand some others had been kept in the walls for many months, and wereengaged in the making of secret passages."
"That is just what I came to ask you, Gurth. I have heard something ofthis story before, and now that we are attacking Wortham Castle, and theearl has sworn to level it to the ground, it is of importance ifpossible to find out whether any of the secret passages lead beyond thecastle, and if so, where. Almost all the castles have, I have been told,an exit by which the garrison can at will make sorties or escape; and Ithought that maybe you might have heard enough to give us some clue asto the existence of such a passage at Wortham."
The old man thought for some time in silence and then said:
"I may be mistaken, but methinks a diligent search in the copse near thestream might find the mouth of the outlet."
"What makes you think that this is so, Gurth?"
"I had been with my mother to carry some clothes to my father on thelast occasion on which I saw him. As we neared the castle I saw myfather and three other of the workmen, together with the baron, comingdown from the castle toward the spot. As my mother did not wish toapproach while the baron was at hand, we stood within the trees at theedge of the wood and watched what was being done. The baron came withthem down to the bushes, and then they again came out, crossed theriver, and one of them cut some willows, peeled them, and erected thewhite staves in a line toward the castle. They walked for a bit on eachside, and seemed to be making calculations. Then they went back into thecastle, and I never saw my father again."
"Why did you not go in at once according to your intention?"
"Because my mother said that she thought some important work was onhand, and that maybe the baron would not like that women should knowaught of it, for he was of suspicious and evil mind. More than this Iknow not. The castle had already been finished and most of the masonsdischarged. There were, however, a party of serfs kept at work, and alsosome masons, and rumor had it that they were engaged in making thesecret passages. Whether it was so or not I cannot say, but I know thatnone of that party ever left the castle alive. It was given out that abad fever had raged there, but none believed it; and the report wentabout, and was I doubt not true, that all had been killed, to preservethe secret of the passage."
Cuthbert lost no time in making use of the information that he hadgained.
Early next morning, at daybreak, he started on his pony to Wortham.
As he did not wish the earl or his followers to know the facts that hehad learned until they were proved, he made his way round the camp ofthe besiegers, and by means of his whistle called one of the forestersto him.
"Where is Cnut?" he asked.
"He is with a party occupied in making ladders."
"Go to him," Cuthbert said, "and tell him to withdraw quietly and makehis way here. I have an important matter on which I wish to speak tohim."
Cnut arrived in a few minutes, somewhat wondering at the message. Hebrightened greatly when Cuthbert told him what he had learned.
"This is indeed important," he said. "We will lose no time in searchingthe copse you speak of. You and I, together with two of my most trustymen, with axes to clear away the brush, will do. At present a thing ofthis sort had best be kept between as few as may be."
They started at once and soon came down upon the stream.
It ran at this point in a little valley, some twenty or thirty feetdeep. On the bank not far from the castle grew a small wood, and it wasin 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 thatif the passage had ever existed it had been unused for some years.
The woodmen were obliged to chop down dozens of young saplings to maketheir way up from the water toward the steeper part of the bank.
The wood was some fifty yards in length, and as it was uncertain atwhich point the passage had come out, a very minute search had to bemade.
"What do you think it would be like, Cnut?" Cuthbert asked.
"Like enough to a rabbit-hole, or more likely still there would be nohole whatever. We must look for moss and greenery, for it is likely thatsuch would have been planted, so as to conceal the door from anypasser-by, while yet allowing a party from inside to cut their waythrough it without difficulty."
After a search of two hours, Cnut decided that the only place in thecopse in which it was likely that the entrance to a passage could behidden was a spot where the ground was covered thickly with ivy andtrailing 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 ofthe staff went through suddenly, pitching him on his head, amid asuppressed laugh from his comrades.
"Here it is, if anywhere," said Cnut, and with their billhooks they atonce began to clear away the thickly grown creepers.
Five minutes' work was sufficient to show a narrow cut, some two feetwide, in the hillside, 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 usedlately, that is clear," he went on. "These creepers have not been movedfor years. Shall we go and tell the earl of our discovery? What thinkyou, Cuthbert?"
"I think we had better not," Cuthbert said.
"We might not succeed in getting in, as the passage may have fallenfurther along; but I will speak to him and tell him that we havesomething on hand which may alter his dispositions for fightingto-morrow."
Cuthbert made his way to the earl, who had taken possession of a smallcottage 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 yousee 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 beable to make a diversion in our favor. However, sir, it can do no harmif you will wait till then, and may save many lives. At what hour do youmean to attack ?"
"The bridges and all other preparations to assist us across the moatwill 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 afteryour bugle has sounded the white flag will make its appearance on thekeep, but it cannot do so until after you have commenced an attack, orat least a pretense of an attack."
Two or three hours before daylight Cuthbert accompanied
Cnut andtwenty-five picked men of the foresters to the copse. They were providedwith crowbars, and all carried heavy axes. The door was soon pried open.It opened silently and without a creak.
"It may be," Cnut said, "that the door has not been opened as you sayfor 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 doubtthe 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 dawncommences. The earl will blow his bugle as a signal for the advance; itwill be another ten minutes before they are fairly engaged, and thatwill be enough for us to break open any doors that there may be betweenthis and the castle, and to force our way inside."
It seemed a long time waiting before the dawn fairly broke--still longerbefore 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 enteredthe passage.
Cuthbert had had some misgivings as to his mother's injunctions to takeno part in the fray, and it cannot be said that in accompanying theforesters he obeyed the letter of her instructions. At the same time ashe felt sure that the effect of a surprise would be complete andcrushing, and that the party would gain the top of the keep without anyserious resistance, he considered the risk was so small as to justifyhim 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 footgoing and returning, doubtless that of the man who had oiled the lockthe day before, the passage appeared to have been unused from the timethat 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 theforesters, and they again advanced. Presently they came to a flight ofsteps.
"We must now be near the castle," Cnut said. "In fact, methinks I canhear confused noises ahead."
Mounting the steps, they came to a third door; this was thickly studdedwith iron, and appeared of very great strength. Fortunately the lock wasupon their side, and they were enabled to shoot the bolt; but upon theother side the door was firmly secured by large bolts, and it was fullyfive minutes before the foresters could succeed in opening it. It wasnot without a good deal of noise that they at last did so; and severaltimes they paused, fearing that the alarm must have been given in thecastle. As, however, the door remained closed, they supposed that theoccupants were fully engaged in defending themselves from the attacks ofthe earl's party.
When the door gave way they found hanging across in front of them a verythick arras, and pressing this aside they entered a small room in thethickness of the wall of the keep. It contained the merest slit forlight, and was clearly unused. Another door, this time unfastened, ledinto a larger apartment, which was also at present unoccupied. Theycould hear now the shouts of the combatants without, the loud ordersgiven by the leaders on the walls, the crack, as the stones hurled bythe mangonels struck the walls, and the ring of steel as the arrowsstruck against steel cap and cuirass.
"It is fortunate that all were so well engaged, or they would certainlyhave heard the noise of our forcing the door, which would have broughtall of them upon us. As it is, we are in the heart of the keep. We havenow but to make a rush up these winding steps, and methinks we shallfind ourselves on the battlements. They will be so surprised that noreal 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 betweenhim and the leader. He carried his short sword and a quarterstaff, aweapon by no means to be despised in the hands of an active andexperienced player.
Presently, after mounting some fifty or sixty steps, they issued on theplatform of the keep. Here were gathered some thirty or forty men, whowere so busied in shooting with crossbows, and in working machinescasting javelins, stones, and other missiles upon the besiegers, thatthey were unaware of the addition to their numbers until the whole ofthe foresters had gathered on the summit, and at the order of Cnutsuddenly fell upon them with a loud shout.
Taken wholly by surprise by the foe, who seemed to have risen from thebowels of the earth by magic, the soldiers of the Baron of Worthamoffered but a feeble resistance. Some were cast over the battlement ofthe keep, some driven down staircases, others cut down, and then,Cuthbert fastening a small white flag he had prepared to hisquarterstaff, waved it above the battlements.
Even now the combatants on the outer wall were in ignorance of what hadhappened in the keep; so great was the din that the struggle which hadthere taken place had passed unnoticed; and it was not until thefugitives, rushing out into the courtyard, shouted that the keep hadbeen captured, that the besieged became aware of the imminence of thedanger.
CUTHBERT FASTENED A SMALL WHITE FLAG TO HIS QUARTER-STAFFAND WAVED IT ABOVE THE BATTLEMENTS.]
Hitherto the battle had been going well for the defenders of thecastle. The Baron of Wortham was indeed surprised at the feebleness ofthe assault. The arrows which had fallen in clouds upon the first day'sattack upon the castle among his soldiers were now comparatively few andineffective. The besiegers scarcely appeared to push forward theirbridges with any vigor, and it seemed to him that a coldness had fallenupon them, and that some disagreement must have arisen between theforesters and the earl, completely crippling the energy of the attack.
When he heard the words shouted from the courtyard below he could notbelieve his ears. That the keep behind should have been carried by theenemy appeared to him impossible. With a roar he called upon the bravestof his men to follow, and rushing across the courtyard, rapidly ascendedthe staircase. The movement was observed from the keep, and Cnut and afew of his men stationed themselves with their battle-axes at the top ofvarious stairs leading below.
The signal shown by Cuthbert had not passed unobserved. The earl, whohad given instructions to his followers to make a mere feint ofattacking, now blew the signal for the real onslaught. The bridges wererapidly run across the moat, ladders were planted, and the garrisonbeing paralyzed and confused by the attack in their rear, as well ashindered by the arrows which now flew down upon them from the keepabove, offered but a feeble resistance, and the assailants, led by SirWalter himself, poured over the walls.
Now there was a scene of confusion and desperate strife. The baron hadjust gained the top of the stairs, and was engaged in a fierce conflictwith Cnut and his men, when the news reached him that the wall wascarried from without. With an execration he again turned and rushed downthe 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 wasbut little hope of mercy from the Saxon foresters, and against thesethey fought to the last. To the Norman retainers, however, of the earlthey offered a less determined resistance, throwing down their arms andsurrendering at discretion.
The baron, when fiercely fighting, was slain by an arrow from the keepabove, and with his fall the last resistance ceased. A short time wasspent in searching the castle, binding the prisoners, and carrying offthe valuables that the baron had collected in his raids. Then a lightwas set to the timbers, the granaries were fired, and in a few minutesthe smoke wreathing out of the various loopholes and openings told thecountry round that the stronghold had fallen, and that they were freefrom the oppressor at last.