"

"Halt!" shrieked Roy with all his force in his cry, and then in a voice
he did not know as his own, he yelled out, "Royland! Royland! God save
the king!"

The effect was electrical. His words were answered by a loud "hurrah!"

Roy looked back from the window-splay.

"Friends!" he panted. "Ben, up with you, and lower the bridge;" and as
the old sergeant sprang to the staircase, followed by five more, the
others seized the capstan-bars and began to hoist the portcullis; while,
sword in hand, Roy stood on the narrow stair, determined to die sooner
than an enemy should pass.

But the next minute the bridge was down, with the defenders in ignorance
of what was going on; the first knowledge they had of what was to come
being given by the thunder of the horses' hoofs, and a deafening cheer
as the Cavaliers dashed in.

That charge decided the fight, for in less than five minutes, in spite
of the officer's desperate valour, the defenders broke and fled, to take
refuge in corridor and chamber, from whence they could fire upon their
enemies.

But, half-mad now with excitement, and flushed by the certainty of
victory, the Cavaliers, headed by Sir Granby Royland, went in pursuit,
chasing the Parliamentary party through the passages, never giving them
time to combine, capturing knot after knot, and forcibly driving the
rest below, where, feeling that all was over, their captain ended the
carnage by offering to surrender. Then the triumphant Cavaliers
gathered in the court-yard, waving hat and sword in the bright light of
the burning building, and raising the echoes with their shouts.

It was about this time that Roy, followed by his little party, sought
out his father, to find him at last, busy, like the careful soldier he
was, stationing men at the towers, and then arranging for a proper
defence of the great gap in the castle side, though temporarily it was
now well defended by a line of flames that no man could pass.

Roy gazed in dismay at the blackened, blood-stained man, bleeding from
two fresh wounds, and was ready to wonder whether this was the gallant,
handsome cavalier who had left the castle to go on the king's service so
short a time before.

"Ah! my brave, true boy!" cried Sir Granby, catching him by the
shoulders; "old Martlet tells me how you led them to open a way for our
friends. It was the work of a good soldier, Roy. You'll be a general
yet. What do you say?" he continued, with a laugh; "as I