id Robert cautiously; "you don't know what
they're like near to. They've got _real_ bows and arrows--an awful
length--and swords and pikes and daggers, and all sorts of sharp things.
They're all quite, quite real. It's not just a--a picture, or a vision
or anything; they can _hurt us_--or kill us even, I shouldn't wonder. I
can feel my ear all sore yet. Look here--have you explored the castle?
Because I think we'd better let them alone as long as they let us alone.
I heard that Jakin man say they weren't going to attack till just
before sundown. We can be getting ready for the attack. Are there any
soldiers in the castle to defend it?"

"We don't know," said Cyril. "You see, directly I'd wished we were in a
besieged castle, everything seemed to go upside down, and when it came
straight we looked out of the window, and saw the camp and things and
you--and of course we kept on looking at everything. Isn't this room
jolly? It's as real as real!"

It was. It was square, with stone walls four feet thick, and great beams
for ceiling. A low door at the corner led to a flight of steps, up and
down. The children went down; they found themselves in a great arched
gate-house--the enormous doors were shut and barred. There was a window
in a little room at the bottom of the round turret up which the stair
wound, rather larger than the other windows, and looking through it they
saw that the drawbridge was up and the portcullis down; the moat looked
very wide and deep. Opposite the great door that led to the moat was
another great door, with a little door in it. The children went through
this, and found themselves in a big courtyard, with the great grey walls
of the castle rising dark and heavy on all four sides.

Near the middle of the courtyard stood Martha, moving her right hand
backwards and forwards in the air. The cook was stooping down and moving
her hands, also in a very curious way. But the oddest and at the same
time most terrible thing was the Lamb, who was sitting on nothing, about
three feet from the ground, laughing happily.

The children ran towards him. Just as Anthea was reaching out her arms
to take him, Martha said crossly, "Let him alone--do, miss, when he _is_
good."

"But what's he _doing_?" said Anthea.

"Doing? Why, a-setting in his high chair as good as gold, a precious,
watching me doing of the ironing. Get along with you, do--my iron's cold
again."

She went towards the cook, and seemed to poke an in