e.

At each barrier there was a cottage and a guard-room, though, as a
matter of fact, the watch was kept in peaceful times even more
carelessly than at the inner gates of the wall about the House itself.
Much the same plan, with local variations, was pursued on the other
estates of the province, though the stockade at the Old House was
remarkable for the care and skill with which it had been constructed.
Part of the duty of the watchman on the roof was to keep an eye on the
barriers, which he could see from his elevated position.

In case of an incursion of gipsies, or any danger, the guard at the
barrier was supposed to at once close the gate, blow a horn, and exhibit
a flag. Upon hearing the horn or observing the flag, the warder on the
roof raised the alarm, and assistance was sent. Such was the system, but
as no attack had taken place for some years the discipline had grown
lax.

After crossing on the stepping-stones Oliver and Felix were soon under
the stockade which ran high above them, and was apparently as difficult
to get out of as to get into. By the strict law of the estate, any
person who left the stockade except by the public barrier rendered
himself liable to the lash or imprisonment. Any person, even a retainer,
endeavouring to enter from without by pole, ladder, or rope, might be
killed with an arrow or dart, putting himself into the position of an
outlaw. In practice, of course, this law was frequently evaded. It did
not apply to the family of the owner.

Under some bushes by the palisade was a ladder of rope, the rungs,
however, of wood. Putting his fishing-tackle and boar spear down, Oliver
took the ladder and threw the end over the stockade. He then picked up a
pole with a fork at the end from the bushes, left there, of course, for
the purpose, and with the fork pushed the rungs over till the ladder was
adjusted, half within and half without the palisade. It hung by the
wooden rungs which caught the tops of the stakes. He then went up, and
when at the top, leant over and drew up the outer part of the ladder one
rung, which he put the inner side of the palisade, so that on
transferring his weight to the outer side it might uphold him. Otherwise
the ladder, when he got over the points of the stakes, must have slipped
the distance between one rung and a second.

Having adjusted this, he got over, and Felix carrying up the spears and
tackle handed them to him. Felix followed, and thus in three minu