hes you to send all the women who are strong enough to help
to carry water from the river. The well is dry, and the men cannot be
spared from the embankment. We expect another attack, and there are
great patches of blazing straw flying about in the wind."

She spoke a few words to the women, and all but two or three, who were
too weak or ill, went forth to the work. One kiss she imprinted
eagerly on his brow, and dismissed him back to his perilous task
without allowing herself one sigh.

"Now, dear ones," she said to the little girls, "keep quiet till
mother comes back. I must go."

"O mother, do not leave us!"

But she could not listen to the earnest pleadings, for she felt that
where other women exposed themselves, she too must go, and cheer by
her example.

A long line, reaching to the brink of the river, was soon formed, and
buckets were being passed from hand to hand. A loud cry, and a boy in
the line fell from an arrow, which retained just sufficient strength
to pierce his heart. Herstan and Father Cuthbert carried the corpse
reverently within, the father remembering that but that morning he had
fed with the Bread of Life, at the altar of St. Michael, this poor
lad, so soon to be called to meet the Judge who had entertained him as
a guest at His holy Table that Christmas morn. Two or three others
were soon wounded, but not seriously, and when a supply of water ready
for all emergencies had been collected on the roof, the dangerous duty
was over.

Pale and collected, the Lady Bertha was returning to her children,
when she passed the corpse. One moment, and the thought struck her
that it was Hermann, and the mother's heart gave a great leap.
Tremblingly she put aside the cloth with which they had veiled it, and
was undeceived. Repressing her feelings, she was again by the side of
her little girls, when the fearful cries of the assailants once more
rang through the air.

"Stand to your post! Quit yourselves like men! Be firm!" shouted the
stentorian voice of Edmund.

Onward came the Danes, in three parties, to attack the three sides of
the building. The arrows diminished their numbers, but stayed them
not. They left a struggling dark line upon the ground, but the wounded
had to care for themselves. Edmund rushed to command the defence at
the gate, leaving Alfgar to superintend that upon the right hand, and
Herstan on the left. They had but one moment, and they were in the
thick of the conflict.

Shouts m