eard the noise of our forcing the door, which would have brought
all of them upon us. As it is, we are in the heart of the keep. We have
now but to make a rush up these winding steps, and methinks we shall
find ourselves on the battlements. They will be so surprised that no
real resistance can be offered to us. Now let us advance."

So saying Cnut led the way upstairs, followed by the foresters,
Cuthbert, as before, allowing five or six of them to intervene between
him and the leader. He carried his short sword and a quarterstaff, a
weapon by no means to be despised in the hands of an active and
experienced player.

Presently, after mounting some fifty or sixty steps, they issued on the
platform of the keep. Here were gathered some thirty or forty men, who
were so busied in shooting with crossbows, and in working machines
casting javelins, stones, and other missiles upon the besiegers, that
they were unaware of the addition to their numbers until the whole of
the foresters had gathered on the summit, and at the order of Cnut
suddenly fell upon them with a loud shout.

Taken wholly by surprise by the foe, who seemed to have risen from the
bowels of the earth by magic, the soldiers of the Baron of Wortham
offered but a feeble resistance. Some were cast over the battlement of
the keep, some driven down staircases, others cut down, and then,
Cuthbert fastening a small white flag he had prepared to his
quarterstaff, waved it above the battlements.

Even now the combatants on the outer wall were in ignorance of what had
happened in the keep; so great was the din that the struggle which had
there taken place had passed unnoticed; and it was not until the
fugitives, rushing out into the courtyard, shouted that the keep had
been captured, that the besieged became aware of the imminence of the
danger.

[Illustration: CUTHBERT FASTENED A SMALL WHITE FLAG TO HIS QUARTER-STAFF
AND WAIVED IT ABOVE THE BATTLEMENTS.]

Hitherto the battle had been going well for the defenders of the
castle. The Baron of Wortham was indeed surprised at the feebleness of
the assault. The arrows which had fallen in clouds upon the first day's
attack upon the castle among his soldiers were now comparatively few and
ineffective. The besiegers scarcely appeared to push forward their
bridges with any vigor, and it seemed to him that a coldness had fallen
upon them, and that some disagreement must have arisen between the
foresters and the earl, completel