The Young Castellan: A Tale of the English Civil War

  CHAPTER NINE.

  PORTCULLIS AND BRIDGE.

  As Roy appeared, there was a low buzz of voices, and directly after thebutler cried, "Three cheers for the young master!" with a hearty result.

  Just then Ben came close up to say, confidentially--

  "I made it all comfortable with poor old Jenk, sir."

  "That's right; and Sam Rogers?"

  "Proud's a dog with two tails, sir. Now, sir, if you'll give theorders, we'll go up and see what can be done about making the placesafe, and I'm afraid we're going to have a job."

  Roy felt a slight sensation of shrinking, but he mastered it, andcalling to the men to follow him, he turned in by the low archeddoor-way, and ascended to the first chamber of the gate tower, to pausewhere the great iron grating hung before him in its stone grooves formedin the wall, and with its spikes descending through the slit on thefloor, below which the stone paving of the entrance could be seen.

  To make sure of its not descending by any accident of the chains giving,three massive pieces of squared oak had been thrust through as many ofthe openings at the bottom, so that the portcullis rested upon them asthese crossed the long narrow slit through which it descended, and alittle examination showed that if the chains were tightened by turningthe two capstans by means of the bars, and the chains drawn a littleover the great wheels fixed in the ceiling, it would be easy enough towithdraw the three supports and let the grating down.

  "Chains look terribly rusty," said Roy. "Think they'll bear it, Ben?"

  "They're rusty, sir, and a good deal eaten away; but they used to putgood work into these sort o' things, because if they hadn't, they'd havecome down and killed some one. Shall we try?"

  "Yes; no one can be hurt if a watch is kept below. Go down, one of you,and see that no one passes under."

  One of the men ran down, the old capstan-bars were taken from thecorners, and two men on each side inserted them into the holes, andwaited for the order to tighten the chains round the rollers.

  "Ready? All together!" cried Roy; and the men pulled the bars towardsthem with a will, the chains tightened, the pulleys creaked and groaned,and the grating rose an inch or two, sufficient for the pieces of oakcrossing the narrow slit to have been drawn out, when _crack_--_crack_--two of the bars the men handled snapped short off, and their holdersfell, while the portcullis sank back to its old place with a heavy jar.

  "Hundred years, perhaps, since they've been used," said Roy. "Any onehurt?"

  "No, sir," said the men, laughing in spite of a bruise or two; and thebars being examined, it was found that the tough oak of which they werecomposed was completely honeycombed by worms, and powdered away to dust.

  "First job, then, sir, to make new bars," said Ben, promptly.

  "Yes; we'll have the carpenters in from the village directly, Ben. Withthese pulleys well greased, I suppose this will work."

  "Ay, sir, no doubt about that; it's the drawbridge I'm afraid of," saidBen.

  "Let's go up and see, then."

  Roy led the way again, and the men followed into the dark chamber above,where the old furnace stood, and in the corners on either side of thenarrow window, with its hollowed-out notches for firing or usingcross-bows from, were two great round chimney-like constructions builtin the stone, up and down which huge weights, which depended frommassive chains and passed over great rollers, had formerly been used toglide.

  Ben shook his head as he put his hand upon one of the weights, whichwere formed of so many discs of cast lead, through the centre of whichthe great chain passed, a solid bar of iron being driven through a linkbelow to keep them from sliding off.

  The weights hung about breast-high; and at the slight pressure of theman's hand began to swing to and fro in the stone place open to thechamber, but closed below where they ran down in the wall at the sidesof the gate-way.

  "Well, these must have been worked by hand, Ben," said Roy. "Men musthave stood here and run them down. Two of you go to the other side, andall press down together, but stand ready to jump back in case anythingbreaks. I don't see how you can be hurt if you do."

  "No, sir; no one can't be hurt, for the weights will only go down theseholes with a bang."

  "Try, then. Now, all together--pull!"

  The men tugged and strained, but there was no sign of yielding, and Benshook his head.

  "Rollers must be rusted, sir, and stick."

  But upon his climbing up to examine them, it proved that these had notbeen made to turn, only for the chains to slide over them, as thegrooves worn in the iron showed.

  "Nothing to stop 'em here, sir," said the man.

  "Then it must be set fast at the end of the bridge," said Roy; and,descending with the men, they crossed the moat and found the bridgecompletely wedged and fixed in the opening of stone which embraced theend.

  Picks and crowbars were fetched, the stones and sand scraped out, andwhen the place was cleared they reascended to the furnace-chamber, when,upon another trial being made, it was found that the weights soaccurately balanced the bridge that with very little exertion the chainscame screeching and groaning over the iron rollers, and the men gave acheer as the end rose up and up till it was drawn very nearly up to theface of the tower.

  Ben rubbed his ear and grinned with satisfaction.

  "Come, sir," he said, "we can make ourselves pretty safe that way; butI'm afraid the moat's so filled up that a man can wade across."

  "That he can't," cried one of the gardeners. "I've plumbed it all over,and there aren't a place less nor seven or eight feet deep, withoutcounting the mud."

  "Then you've been fishing!" thought Roy, but he did not say so, onlygave orders for the bridge to be lowered again, and sent a man for asupply of grease to well lubricate the rollers and chains.

  Down went the bridge, in a most unmusical way, and as soon as it was inits place once more, a man was sent across for the village carpenter tocome with his tools, there being plenty of good seasoned oak-wood storedup in the buildings.

  Then a consultation ensued. They had the means of cutting themselvesoff from the outer world, and in a short time the portcullis would addto the strength of their defences.

  "What's next, Ben?" said Roy.

  "I'm a-thinking, sir. We've done a lot already, but there's so muchmore to do that things get a bit jumbled like in my head. We've got toget our garrison, and then there's two very important things--wittlesand water!"

  "The well supplies that last," said Roy; "and if we were running short,we could use the water from the moat for everything but food."

  "Yes, sir, that's good. Cart must go to the mill, and bring all thecorn and flour that can be got. Then we must have some beasts and sheepfrom the farm."

  "That's bad," said Roy, "because they'll want feeding."

  "Have to be driven out every morning, sir, till we're besieged. Musthave some cows in too, so that if we are beset we can be independent.But first of all, sir, we ought to see to the powder and the guns. Butyou and me must see to the powder ourselves. We shall want some helpover the guns, and I'm thinking as you'd best make that carpenter stay.The wheels are off one or two of the gun-carriages, and there's norammers or sponges; and I shouldn't wonder if the carriages as I paintedover and pitched are only so many worm-eaten shells."

  "Well, all these things will have to be got over by degrees, Ben. Wehave done the first great things towards making the castle safe, and anenemy need not know how unprepared we are."

  "I don't know so much about being safe, sir."

  "What, not with the drawbridge up?"

  "No, sir," said Ben, in a low tone. "But suppose you sends the men todinner now, and orders 'em to meet in a hour's time in the court-yard--oh dear, oh dear! that's all garden now."

  "You can make room for the men to meet without disturbing the garden,"said Roy, sharply.

  "Very well, sir; you're master. Will you give your orders?"

  Roy gave them promptly, and the men walked away.


  "Now, then," said Roy, "what did you mean about the place not beingsafe? With the bridge up, they could only cross to us by rafts orboats, and then they couldn't get in."

  "Well, sir, it's like this. I've heard tell, though I'd forgotten allabout it till just now, as there's a sort o' passage goes out from thedungeons under the nor'-west tower over to the little ruins on the hillover yonder."

  "Impossible! Why, it would have to be half a mile long, Ben."

  "All that, sir."

  "But it couldn't go under the moat. It would be full of water."

  "Nay, not if it was made tight, sir."

  "But what makes you say that? You've never seen the passage?"

  "No, sir, I've never been down, but your father once said somethingabout it. It was a long time before that tower was done up and maderight for Master Pawson. I don't recollect much about it, but I supposeit must be there."

  "That's another thing to see to, then," said Roy. "Because, if it doesexist, and the enemy heard of it, he might come in and surprise us. Iknow; we'll find it, and block it up."

  "Nay, I wouldn't do that, sir. It might be that we should have to goaway, and it isn't a bad thing to have a way out in case of danger."

  "Not likely to do that, Ben," said Roy, haughtily. "We are going tohold the place."

  "Yes, sir, as long as we can; but we can't do impossibilities. Now,sir, will you go and have your bit o' dinner, while I have mine?"

  "Oh, I don't feel as if I could eat, Ben; I'm too full of excitement."

  "More reason why you should go and have your dinner, sir. Man can'tfight without he eats and drinks."

  "Nor a boy, neither--eh, Ben?"

  "That's so, sir; only I wouldn't be talking before the men about beingonly a boy. You leave them to say it if they like. But they won't;they'll judge you by what you do, sir; and if you act like a man,they'll look at you as being the one in command of them, and behave likeit."

  "Very well, I'll go to dinner, and in an hour meet you here."

  "Fifty minutes, sir. It's a good ten minutes since the men went in."

  Roy joined his mother, feeling, as he said, too full of excitement toeat; but he found the meal ready, with one of the maids in attendance,and everything so calm and quiet, that, as they sat chatting, it seemedas if all this excitement were as unsubstantial as the distant rumoursof war; while, when the meal was at an end, his mother's words tended tolend some of her calm to his excited brain.

  "I have been hearing of all that you have done, Roy," she said. "It isexcellent; but do not hurry. I cannot afford to have you ill."

  That was a fresh idea, and the consequences of such a trouble toohorrible to be contemplated; but it made Roy determine to take thingsmore coolly, and in this spirit he went to where the servants wereassembled in the gate-way, and joined his trusty lieutenant, who hadjust drawn them up in line.