led the men on guard at the
Castle. They had no means of knowing that the Committee of Ten and its
wretched friends had been shot down like dogs in the Public Square.
Peter Brutus was in charge of the squad of executioners.

Soon after the return of Marlanx's messengers to the Tower, a number of
carriages were observed approaching in Castle Avenue. They were halted a
couple of hundred yards from the gates and once more a flag of truce was
presented. There was a single line from Marlanx:

"I am sending indisputable witnesses to bear testimony to the
thoroughness of my conquest.

"MARLANX."

Investigation convinced the captain of the Guard that the motley caravan
in the avenue was made up of loyal, representative citizens from the
important villages of the realm. They were admitted to the grounds
without question.

The Countess Prandeville of Ganlook, terribly agitated, was one of the
first to enter the haven of safety, such as it was. After her came the
mayors and the magistrates of a dozen villages. Count Marlanx's reason
for delivering these people over to their friends in the Castle was at
once manifest.

By the words of their mouths his almost complete mastery of the
situation was conveyed to the Prince's defenders. In every instance the
representative from a village sorrowfully admitted that Marlanx's men
were in control. Ganlook, an ancient stronghold, had been taken without
a struggle by a handful of men. The Countess's husband was even now
confined in his own castle under guard.

The news was staggering. Count Halfont had based his strongest hopes on
the assistance that would naturally come from the villages. Moreover,
the strangely commissioned emissaries cast additional gloom over the
situation by the report that mountaineers, herdsmen and woodchoppers in
the north were flocking to the assistance of the Iron Count, followed by
hordes of outlaws from the Axphain hills. They were swarming into the
city. These men had always been thorns in the sides of the Crown's
peace-makers.

"It is worse than I thought," said Count Halfont, after listening to
the words of the excited magistrates. "Are there no loyal men outside
these walls?"

"Thousands, sir, but they are not organised. They have no leader, and
but little with which to fight against such a force."

"It is hard to realise that a force of three or four thousand
desperadoes has the power to defy an entire k