nd silent that night. Not the howl
of a questing wolf was heard. Truly the marshal's demons had forsaken
him, or mayhap they were all busy at that last carnival in the keep
of the Castle of Machecoul.

As the storming party approached nearer, and while yet they were
several miles distant, they became aware of a great red light that
gleamed forth above them. They could not see whence it came, but the
peasants of Saint Philbert with affrighted glances told how it
beaconed only after the disappearance of some little one from their
homes, what strange cries were heard ringing out from that lofty
tower, and how for days after the smoke of a great burning would hang
about the gloomy turrets of devil-haunted Machecoul.

Fiercer and ever fiercer shone the red glare, and the faces of the
soldiers were lit up so that Pierre de l'Hopital ordered them to keep
to the more gloomy arcades of the forest.

Then by midnight the cordon was drawn so closely that none might pass
in or out. And behind the soldiery the common folk lay crouched, anger
in their hearts, and their eyes turned towards the open windows in the
keep of Machecoul, from which flared the red light of bale.

Then, covering their lanterns, the three Scots, with Duke John, Pierre
de l'Hopital, and a score of officers, stole silently towards the
tower by which the Lady Sybilla had promised that an entrance should
be gained to the Castle of Machecoul.

It was situated at the western corner towards the south, and was
joined to its fellows at the corresponding angles of the fortress by
galleried walls of great height. Ten feet above the ground was a
little door of embossed iron, but ordinarily no steps led to it when
the castle was in a state of defence. Yet when Sholto adventured into
the angle of the wall, he stumbled upon a ladder that leaned against
the little landing-ledge, above which was the entrance denoted on the
plan.

Sholto ascended first, being the lightest and most agile of all. As he
had expected, he found the door unlocked and a narrow passage leading
within the tower. He lay a moment and listened, and then, being
certain there was a light and the sounds of labour within, he crawled
back to the ladder head, and whispered to the Lord James an order for
total silence.

Whereupon, Sholto holding the ladder at the top, Duke John and his
Councillor mounted like shadows, and with Malise and James Douglas to
guard them they were presently crouched in the pass