amparts we passed over, and not a soul could have heard or seen us had
any been there. It was easy to get from the wall on to the gate, and
all might have gone well had not a wolf-hound, imprisoned in the tower,
or left there to do the watching which the sentinel neglected, sprung
out to meet us as we stepped on to the battlement with a mighty howl.

So sudden was his leap that he had Ludar by the throat before we knew
what had happened; and ere I had drawn my sword and saved my master from
so savage a death there was a noise, with shouting and lights, in the
road below.

"Quick!" cried Ludar, springing to his feet and running to the pole.

In a minute he had scaled it and robbed it of its fearful burden.
Already I could tell by the shouts below that we were pursued, but
Ludar, as he stood there, panting, with his precious burden held to his
breast, heeded nothing.

"Come," said I; "we are followed."

He laughed bitterly.

"Humphrey," said he, "as you love me, cut me this hound's head off and
put it there, where my brother's head stood. Quick!"

I did as he bade me, though it cost us precious moments. Nor would he
budge till the grim exchange was made. Then suddenly he descended on
the far side of the gateway. It was well he did so, for there being no
regular way on to the wall that side, our pursuers had mounted by the
other, leaving only a couple of stupid sentinels to watch below.
Happily for us, the snow lay thick and soft; for more than once we fell
as we scaled the ramparts, and might have broken our limbs. Our
pursuers behind, having come to the gate top and finding no one there,
liked not to follow us the way we had gone, and contented themselves
with discharging their pieces into the darkness our way. But we were
out of their reach. For, once on the wall, 'twas easy going, and
instead of descending we made a quarter of the way round the city, till,
somewhere near the north-eastern tower, we slid down by a drift of snow
into the deserted street.

Then, Ludar leading, we returned some distance along by the foot of the
very wall on whose top we had lately crept, to where stood a church,
with a graveyard verging on the wall. Here my comrade halted, and
reverently set down his burden, and between us, as we knelt in the snow,
we digged a grave to shelter it. Our swords served us for spades, nor,
alack! did it need many inches of kind mother earth to hold all that
remained of Alexander McDonnell. W