therefore agreed to give their aid, and promised to be at
the rendezvous outside the castle to be attacked soon after dawn next
morning. Cuthbert returned with the news which gave great satisfaction
to the earl.

The castle was now a scene of bustle and business; armorers were at work
repairing headpieces and breastplates, sharpening swords and
battle-axes, while the fletchers prepared sheaves of arrows. In the
courtyard a number of men were engaged oiling the catapults, ballistas,
and other machines for hurling stones. All were discussing the chances
of the assault, for it was no easy matter which they had set themselves
to do. Wortham Hold was an extremely strong one, and it needed all and
more than all the machines at their disposal to undertake so formidable
an operation as a siege.

The garrison, too, were strong and desperate; and the baron, knowing
what must follow his outrage of the day before, would have been sure to
send off messengers round the country begging his friends to come to
his assistance. Cuthbert had begged permission of his mother to ask the
earl to allow him to join as a volunteer, but she would not hear of it.
Neither would she suffer him to mingle with the foresters. The utmost
that he could obtain was that he might go as a spectator, with strict
injunctions to keep himself out of the fray, and as far as possible
beyond bow-shot of the castle wall.

It was a force of some four hundred strong that issued from the wood
early next morning to attack the stronghold at Wortham. The force
consisted of some ten or twelve knights and barons, some one hundred and
fifty or one hundred and sixty Norman men-at-arms, a miscellaneous
gathering of other retainers, two hundred strong, and some eighty of the
forest men. These last were not to fight under the earl's banner, but
were to act on their own account. There were among them outlaws, escaped
serfs, and some men guilty of bloodshed. The earl then could not have
suffered these men to fight under his flag until purged in some way of
their offenses.

This arrangement suited the foresters well.

Their strong point was shooting; and by taking up their own position,
and following their own tactics, under the leadership of Cnut, they
would be able to do far more execution, and that with less risk to
themselves, than if compelled to fight according to the fashion of the
Normans.

As they approached the castle a trumpet was blown, and the herald
advancing,