save to bait our
horses and snatch a mouthful while they ate, since daybreak. In truth
the news we received made me sorely anxious, though I felt sure that
MacIntosh could hold the chateau against any attack that was likely to
be made on it."

CHAPTER XIX: THE PEASANTS' REVOLT

After eating a meal Hector had a talk aside with MacIntosh.

"Do you really think that these varlets will venture to attack us?"

"I do indeed," the old sergeant said. "They have taken several places
as strong as this by sudden assault. They are desperate, and, as I hear,
fight like demons, regardless as to how many fall. As far as stout arms
go we are well supplied, for there are at least a hundred men capable
of bearing arms, and all have had more or less drill since I have been
here. Unfortunately, however, our wall pieces are old and scarce fit
for service, several of them will, I feel sure, burst at the first
discharge."

"But they have no artillery at all, MacIntosh?"

"I am sorry to say that they have, sir, and a good amount of it. They
captured ten field pieces when they defeated the troops, and have
obtained a score of others from the chateaux that they have taken. They
have only to plant them three or four hundred yards away at the end of
the plateau, and they would easily batter down the gates, and might even
in time effect a breach in the walls."

"That is serious indeed, MacIntosh. Is there any other way in which they
can attack us save in front?"

"I think not. I was careful to examine the face of the precipice when I
first took command here, and wherever it seemed to me that an active man
could climb up I had portions of the rock blown up, and have so scarped
the face that I do not think it is scalable by human foot. But there
is nothing to prevent their crossing the fosse on a dark night, and so
stealing along and making an attack on all sides of the house."

"Then our first care must be to prevent this, MacIntosh, by building
walls along by the fosse from the corner towers to the edge of the
plateau. The distance is very short, not more than eight or ten yards at
the outside. We have, I see, any number of horses and not a few carts.
Let the tenants be set to work at once, and, going down the road into
the ravine below, fill their carts with blocks of stone and haul them up
here. Let active boys be sent out in all directions as scouts to bring
in word when the insurgents are approaching; and at the same time let