ho threw themselves in their way were
overpowered or brushed aside, while the pursuers were beaten back by the
ready weapons of the three cavaliers. Unscathed they fought their way to
the door of the keep, and faced round upon the swarming mob, while the
squire thrust the great key into the lock.

"My God!" he cried, "it is the wrong key."

"The wrong key!"

"Dolt, fool that I am! This is the key of the castle gate; the other
opens the keep. I must back for it!" He turned, with some wild intention
of retracing his steps, but at the instant a great jagged rock, hurled
by a brawny peasant, struck him full upon the ear, and he dropped
senseless to the ground.

"This is key enough for me!" quoth Hordle John, picking up the huge
stone, and hurling it against the door with all the strength of his
enormous body. The lock shivered, the wood smashed, the stone flew into
five pieces, but the iron clamps still held the door in its position.
Bending down, he thrust his great fingers under it, and with a heave
raised the whole mass of wood and iron from its hinges. For a moment it
tottered and swayed, and then, falling outward, buried him in its ruin,
while his comrades rushed into the dark archway which led to safety.

"Up the steps, Tiphaine!" cried Du Guesclin. "Now round, friends, and
beat them back!" The mob of peasants had surged in upon their heels, but
the two trustiest blades in Europe gleamed upon that narrow stair, and
four of their number dropped upon the threshold. The others gave back,
and gathered in a half circle round the open door, gnashing their teeth
and shaking their clenched hands at the defenders. The body of the
French squire had been dragged out by them and hacked to pieces. Three
or four others had pulled John from under the door, when he suddenly
bounded to his feet, and clutching one in either hand dashed them
together with such force that they fell senseless across each other upon
the ground. With a kick and a blow he freed himself from two others
who clung to him, and in a moment he was within the portal with his
comrades.

Yet their position was a desperate one. The peasants from far and near
had been assembled for this deed of vengeance, and not less than six
thousand were within or around the walls of the Chateau of Villefranche.
Ill armed and half starved, they were still desperate men, to whom
danger had lost all fears: for what was death that they should shun
it to cling to such a life as t