The Boy Knight | Page 9

as the castle is
strong, methinks that the earl has embarked upon a business that will
keep him here till next spring."
There was little time lost in commencing the conflict.
The foresters, skirmishing up near to the castle, and taking advantage of
every inequality in the ground, of every bush and tuft of high grass,
worked up close to the moat, and then opened a heavy fire with their
bows against the men-at-arms on the battlements, and prevented their
using the machines against the main force now advancing to the attack
upon the outwork.
This was stoutly defended. But the impetuosity of the earl, backed as it
was by the gallantry of the knights serving under him, carried all
obstacles.
The narrow moat which encircled this work was speedily filled with
great bundles of brushwood, which had been prepared the previous
night. Across these the assailants rushed.
Some thundered at the gate with their battle-axes, while others placed
ladders by which, although several times hurled backward by the
defenders, they finally succeeded in getting a footing on the wall.
Once there, the combat was virtually over.
The defenders were either cut down or taken prisoners, and in two
hours after the assault began the outwork of Wortham Castle was taken.
This, however, was but the commencement of the undertaking, and it
had cost more than twenty lives to the assailants.
They were now, indeed, little nearer to capturing the castle than they
had been before.
The moat was wide and deep. The drawbridge had been lifted at the
instant that the first of the assailants gained a footing upon the wall.

And now that the outwork was captured, a storm of arrows, stones, and
other missiles was poured into it from the castle walls, and rendered it
impossible for any of its new masters to show themselves above it.
Seeing that any sudden attack was impossible, the earl now directed a
strong body to cut down trees, and prepare a moveable bridge to throw
across the moat.
This would be a work of fully two days; and in the meantime Cuthbert
returned to the farm.

CHAPTER III.
THE CAPTURE OF WORTHAM HOLD.
Upon his return home, after relating to his mother the events of the
morning's conflict, Cuthbert took his way to the cottage inhabited by an
old man who had in his youth been a mason.
"Have I not heard, Gurth," he said, "that you helped to build the Castle
of Wortham?"
"No, no, young sir," he said; "old as I am, I was a child when the castle
was built. My father worked at it, and it cost him, and many others, his
life."
"And how was that, prithee?" asked Cuthbert.
"He was, with several others, killed by the baron, the grandfather of the
present man, when the work was finished."
"But why was that, Gurth?"
"We were but Saxon swine," said Gurth bitterly, "and a few of us more
or less mattered not. We were then serfs of the baron. But my mother
fled with me on the news of my father's death. For years we remained
far away with some friends in a forest near Oxford. Then she pined for

her native air, and came back and entered the service of the franklin."
"But why should your mother have taken you away?" Cuthbert asked.
"She always believed, Master Cuthbert, that my father was killed by the
baron to prevent him giving any news of the secrets of the castle. He
and some others had been kept in the walls for many months, and were
engaged in the making of secret passages."
"That is just what I came to ask you, Gurth. I have heard something of
this story before, and now that we are attacking Wortham Castle, and
the earl has sworn to level it to the ground, it is of importance if
possible to find out whether any of the secret passages lead beyond the
castle, and if so, where. Almost all the castles have, I have been told, an
exit by which the garrison can at will make sorties or escape; and I
thought that maybe you might have heard enough to give us some clue
as to the existence of such a passage at Wortham."
The old man thought for some time in silence and then said:
"I may be mistaken, but methinks a diligent search in the copse near the
stream might find the mouth of the outlet."
"What makes you think that this is so, Gurth?"
"I had been with my mother to carry some clothes to my father on the
last occasion on which I saw him. As we neared the castle I saw my
father and three other of the workmen, together with the baron, coming
down from the