the keep.

After a time Walter from the summit saw several bodies of men detach
themselves from the crowd still without the castle and proceed into the
country. Two hours later they were seen returning laden with trunks of
trees. These were dragged through the breach, and were, in spite of the
efforts of the archers and of the men-at-arms with their stones, placed
so as to form a sort of penthouse against one side of the keep. Numbers
of the soldiers now poured up with sacks and all kinds of vessels which
they had gathered from the surrounding villages, filled with earth. This
was thrown over the beams until it filled all the crevices between them
and formed a covering a foot thick, so that neither boiling oil nor
water poured from above could penetrate to injure those working beneath
its shelter. When all was ready a strong body armed with picks and
crowbars entered the penthouse and began to labour to cut away the wall
of the keep itself.

"Their commander knows his business," Walter said, "and the device is an
excellent one. We can do nothing, and it only depends upon the strength
of the wall how long we can hold out. The masonry is by no means good,
and before nightfall, unless aid comes, there will be nought for us but
death or surrender."

CHAPTER XVI: A PRISONER

As long as it was light an anxious look-out was kept from the top of the
keep towards Calais. There was nothing to be done. The besiegers who
had entered the walls were ensconced in the various buildings in the
courtyard or placed behind walls so as to be out of arrow-shot from
above, and were in readiness to repel any sortie which might be made to
interfere with the work going on under the penthouse. But no sortie was
possible, for to effect this it would be necessary to remove the stones
from the door, and before this could be accomplished the besiegers would
have rallied in overwhelming force, nor could a sortie have effected
anything beyond the slaying of the men actually engaged in the work.
The beams of the penthouse were too strong and too heavily weighted with
earth to be removed, and the attempt would only have entailed useless
slaughter. The penthouse was about forty feet in length, and the
assailants were piercing three openings, each of some six feet in
width, leaving two strong supporting pillars between them. Anxiously the
garrison within listened to the sounds of work, which became louder and
louder as the walls crumbled before