easts, and they literally swarmed into the ruins, and climbed here and
there among the flames and smoke.

Fully expecting to be stopped, Roy opened his door; but the sentry had
been summoned with those from the towers and ramparts to defend the
great gap, and Roy passed on to his mother's room, entered without
stopping to knock, to see her surrounded by the women-servants at the
window, their faces lit up by the flames rising brighter and brighter
from the ruins.

Lady Royland did not hear her son enter, but turned and caught his hands
as he ran to her.

"Roy!" she cried, wildly. "What does this mean?"

"Our turn at last, mother," he said, wild with excitement. "Look,--look
at them, the Royalists; they've blown down that side, and father is
there with two hundred Cavaliers!"

"Roy!" she cried, hysterically.

"Yes," continued the lad, as he forced himself to the front, and gazed
out; "look, mother; nothing stops them. Hurrah! More and more, and--"

The roar of one of the guns from the middle of the court drowned his
words, and there was another roar, but the effect was little. The guns
were discharged point-blank at the storming party climbing on the ruins;
but they were scattered like skirmishers, and the gun-fire did not check
them in the least. To Roy it only seemed that they dashed in more
furiously, swarming, by the light of the blazing ruins, like bees; and
before the guns could be reloaded, the Cavaliers were upon the defenders
of the place, and a desperate hand-to-hand fight commenced.

Roy turned excitedly to his mother.

"Stop here; keep the women with you, and don't go near the window; there
may be firing;" and, even as he spoke, shots began to ring out.

"Stop! Where are you going?" cried Lady Royland, clinging to him.

"To release our men, and help my father," said Roy.

Lady Royland's hands fell to her sides, and the boy darted out of the
room and along the corridor, full of the idea that had flashed into his
brain.

Away to the end he ran unchallenged, turned to the right, and without
meeting a soul, reached the north-east tower, listening to the shouting
and clashing of swords in the court as the desperate fight went on, his
way lit by the glare from the flames in spite of the dense, heavy smoke
and the choking fumes of exploded gunpowder which rolled along the
passage.

With his heart beating wildly for fear he should be too late, Roy dashed
down the spiral staircase to the baseme