for, in spite of Roy's
spirited behaviour, he felt afterwards that Master Pawson had cast a
damp upon the proceedings. Still, he knew that something must be done
to counteract that sneering smile distributed among the men by the
tutor; and upon his return to the rank he walked to and fro, and
expressed his satisfaction at the promptitude they had displayed, and,
after ordering them to assemble at nine the next morning, he dismissed
them. For the messenger had returned with the village carpenter, who
took one of the old capstan-bars for a pattern, and undertook to have
half a dozen new ones of the strongest oak made by the next morning.

Then there was the greasing of the drawbridge chains and rollers to see
to, and, when this was successfully done, Roy found to his satisfaction
that the men could raise or lower it with, if not ease, at all events
without much difficulty.

To the boy's great delight, he found that the three troopers dropped
into their places in the most easy manner, obeying his every order with
alacrity and displaying all the readiness of well-drilled men. They
began by assisting at once with the cleaning and easing of the
drawbridge chains, one of them, after stripping off his coat, gorget,
and cap, climbing the supports to apply the lubricant to the rollers
from outside, where they needed it most; and when, that evening, Ben
suggested that one of the guns standing in the pleasaunce should be
examined, they made the servants stare by the deft way in which they
helped him to handle the ponderous mass of metal, hitching on ropes and
dragging it out from where it had lain half-covered with ivy to where it
was now planted, so that it could be made to sweep the road-way
approaching the bridge; the other one in the garden being afterwards
treated in the same way.

"Well, yes, sir, they're pretty heavy," said the corporal, in answer to
a compliment passed by Roy upon the ease with which the work had been
done; "but it isn't all strength that does it. It's knack--the way of
handling a thing and all putting your muscle into it together."

"Ay, that's it," said Ben. "That's what you see in a good charge. If
it's delivered in a scattering sort o' way it may do good, but the
chance is it won't. But if the men ride on shoulder to shoulder and
knee to knee, and then give point altogether--"

"Yes, as Sir Granby Royland's regiment can," said the corporal, proudly.

"Ay, and always did," cried Ben, excited