right, with the pennon floating in front of it; and there
are the mangonells behind," and she pointed to a row of strange-looking
machines, which were drawn up on a hill a little way to the rear. "Well,
'tis a stony coast; his lordship will have no trouble in finding stones
to load them with."

"What be they, madam?" I asked, for in all my life I had never seen such
things before.

My lady laughed as she turned her head to greet Walter Brand, who came
up the stairs at that moment.

"Welcome, Walter," she said merrily. "We are just taking the measure of
our foes, and here is Marian, who has never seen mangonells before,
wondering what they are. They are engines for shooting stones with,
Marian; for well the knaves know that arrows are but poor weapons with
which to batter stone walls. But see, the fray begins, for yonder are
the archers approaching, and yonder go the men down to the sea-shore to
gather stones for the mangonells. Thou and I must e'en go down and leave
the men to brave the storm. See to it, Walter, that they do not expose
themselves unduly; we could ill afford to lose one of them."

Then began the weary onslaught which lasted for so many weeks. In good
faith it seems to me that, had we known, when that first rush of arrows
sounded through the air, how long it would be ere we were quiet again,
we scarce would have had the courage to go on. And when those infernal
engines were set off, and their volleys of stones and jagged pieces of
iron sounded round our ears, the poor silly wenches lost their heads,
and screamed aloud, while the bairns clung to my skirts, and hid their
chubby faces in the folds.

But even then my lady was not daunted. Snatching up a napkin, she ran
lightly up the stairs, and before anyone could stop her, she stepped
forward to the battlements, and there, all unheeding of the danger in
which she stood from the arrows of the enemy, she wiped the fragments of
stone, and bits of loose mortar daintily from the walls, as if to show
my Lord of Salisbury how little our Castle could be harmed by all the
stones he liked to hurl against it.

It was bravely done, and again a murmur of admiration went through the
English ranks; and--for I was peeping through a loophole--I trow that
even the haughty Earl's face softened at the sight of her.

The story of that first day is but the story of many more days that
followed. Showers of arrows flew from the cross-bows, volleys of stones
fell from the m