As before, the siege went on, the sole variance being the absence of the
gray-bearded horseman from the groups of knights and squires who made
the circuit of the sentry-posts. Days and weeks went by, and they made
no further assaults, but so closely were the siege lines drawn that,
without wings no creature could enter or leave the castle. It was
evident that the Carleton men hoped to starve us into submission. We
smiled at this when we thought of the loads of grain and salted meats
which had been brought into the storerooms in the first week of my
father's absence, and which would be enough to feed all our little
garrison for a year. A well of most sweet water in the courtyard had
never been known to run dry; so we had little cause for fear of either
hunger or thirst.
What with Marvin's simples, my wound was fast healing, and I longed for
another fray where I could use my bow at close quarters. Scarce a day
passed without one of my bolts striking the steel harness of some
Carleton knight; but none found their way to armor joints; and the
peasants and leather-coated men-at-arms kept well beyond a hurtful
range.
One dismal morning, when a month had passed, my heart sank, as did those
of all the Mountjoys, as we made out the tall figure in black armor and
the long gray beard of the Lord of Carleton, again making his rounds at
the head of a group of knights and squires. Plain to see, he had
recovered from his wound and was as bent as ever on Mountjoy's fall. The
old Gray Wolf was hungry not only for the house and lands of Mountjoy
but also for the vengeance which to him would be sweeter than all the
lands of England. Now might we expect new assaults, planned with their
two failures in mind, and bringing to bear new plans and schemes and all
their beastly hate and greed. Some of our old serving men shivered as
they spoke of the devilish deeds of the Gray Wolf, and of the fate in
store for them if the next assault should win its way.
That night, at something after ten, the weather being raw and dismal
with a cold spring rain and the spirits of all the Mountjoy folk
somewhat adroop, one of the archers had been sent to the cellars to draw
a pitcher of ale. In a moment he came up the stairs on the run, and
burst into the hall with the empty pitcher held in shaking hands and
with teeth chattering with fright.
"Oh, my lady!" he said, catching for his breath, "the Evil One hath us
now, and all our doings are for naught."
"What say'st thou, Gavin?" called his mistress, "who tells thee tales of
the Evil One?"
"'Tis--'Tis the truth," answered poor Gavin, "but now, in the cellars,
he goes--_tap tap tap_ in the ground at one's feet. So has he come to
take many a poor mortal. We be called for, and all our sins on our
heads, with no holy man at hand to say him nay with book and bell."
"Go to. Thou'rt a coward when in the dark by thy lone," said my lady,
scornfully, "though thou fight'st well and truly with comrades at thy
elbow. Marvin, if our watchers are to have their sup of ale on this raw
night, thou must even draw it thyself."
But our brave old archer, hero of a hundred battles, turned pale and
answered slowly:
"Nay, my lady, it is not well for mortal men, with mayhap many a word
and deed unconfessed and unpenanced, to meddle with the Powers of
Darkness. For my sins I know them of old, and I dare not face them. Show
me a mortal man, and I'll stand before him with whatever weapons, but
not the spirits that thump on the footstones by night or twist the neck
of a sleeping man with a hand not seen."
My mother turned pale, and I could see the fringe of her sleeve barely
aquiver in the candlelight. She opened her mouth to speak in reproof of
Marvin; but found no words, and sat gazing toward him with wide and
glistening eyes. Truth to tell, it was a fearsome thing, and for myself
I had but the smallest wish to face the dungeon passages on that black
night. 'Twas not so long since I would not have faced them by my lone on
the most quiet and peaceful of nights with no armed enemies within a
day's journey; and a great round lump came up into my throat as I
thought of it. Yet, even as we sat eying one another in fear, a thought
came to my mind of the duty of a Mountjoy. 'Twas but natural that our
serving men should fear the evil sprites let loose by darkness and
troublous times; and e'en my mother, a fair and gracious lady, and
withal none too strong of body, was not made to face such things. But I
was the Heir of Mountjoy; and my father had knelt before a King of
France and been made Knight of a holy order for his deeds on the Plains
of Jerusalem. I started up and cried:
"Tush! good Marvin. Methought thee far too bold for frightening with old
wives' tales. Come! I'll go before thee bearing a candle to fright away
thy imaginings."
"Spoken like a true Montmorency," said my mother with a strange little
laugh, "truly, Dickon, thou'lt shame us all."
Then she rose and reached to the shelf behind her for a candlestick.
"Oh, now, my lady!" cried old Dame Franklin. "Go not to the dungeons on
such a night. The men can better want their sup of ale. 'Tis an ill
night for all uneasy sprites. Bide here by the fire, for soon we go to
the battlements again."
But my lady already stood with her hand on the great latch of the door
at the head of the stairway which led to the donjon keep. I took my
cross-bow.
"If any of the Imps of Darkness challenge us," I said, "I'll see whether
or no they can stand before a good steel bolt."
But even in the midst of my confident words, I had a thought anent the
spectral tappings which chilled the blood in my veins. Ghostly visitants
I was ready then to challenge; but I had heard my father tell how the
Crusaders took one Saracen stronghold by means of a mine or tunnel, dug
with weeks of toil under the walls and into the passages of the ancient
keep. Why should not the Old Wolf of Carleton have planned a like
attack? During the weeks when his men had seemed so quiet and had given
the Mountjoys scarcely a chance for a long bowshot, might they not have
been driving such a tunnel under their very feet? Suppose that tapping
that Gavin thought the work of the Evil One were the sound of the tools
of the servants of one scarcely less evil and with even more cause to
wish us ill!
"Come then," said my mother, her face white but firm. Opening the great
oak door, she led the way toward the dungeons.
Cross-bow in hand, I followed; and just behind me came Dame Franklin. As
she moved toward the door, Old Marvin picked up his cross-bow, made sure
of the poniard in his belt and followed also, mumbling the while, as
best he might, the words of a Latin prayer.
We came to pause amid the stillness of the vault which was like unto
that of the Mountjoy tomb at Kirkwald Abbey to which one day, with my
hand tightly clasping my father's, I had paid a well remembered visit.
The candle wavered and guttered in a faint draught, and the light
gleamed on the wide eyes of the old dame and the trembling hands of the
archer. I was standing full still with my eyes on my mother's face. For
long we stood while I could hear no sound save the beating strokes
beneath my doublet. Then, suddenly, from the floor beneath or the solid
wall beside us,--
Tap, tap--tap--tap tap.
No one spoke. The candle shook in my lady's hand till it threatened to
fall and leave us in utter darkness. Dame Franklin and the old soldier
were frozen in their places. Then again:
Tap tap--tap--tap tap.
"Oh, Mother," I whispered, "the passage! The secret passage! Our enemies
have found it."
There was another fearsome silence. Then again--Tap tap--tap--tap tap.
Then the echoes of the great vault were roused by a loud, clear call
from my lady mother:
"Oh, my lord! My Lord Mountjoy, is it thou?"
There came a muffled voice in reply, and again we heard the tapping.
[Illustration: _DAME FRANKLIN AND THE OLD SOLDIER WERE FROZEN IN THEIR
PLACES_]
At once she leaped toward the wall with a glad cry:
"Oh, my lord, my lord, have patience but a moment. I will undo the
door."
She brushed aside some old and mildewed hangings, all heavy with dust
and grime, and brought to view a small iron door. Snatching from her
girdle the largest key, she fitted it into the lock. Still, try as she
would, she could not turn it till old Marvin came to her help. Then
indeed the rusty lock gave way, the door swung slowly open, and my
father, the Lord of Mountjoy, followed by half a score of knights and
men-at-arms, stepped forth into the candlelight.
When Lady Mountjoy at last was free from my father's embrace, she stood
with her hands on his shoulders and asked a dozen questions, demanding
that he answer all at once.
"Whence comest thou, my lord? Are the Scots beaten? Had'st thou news of
the treachery of the Old Wolf of Carleton? How many men hast thou? Oh! I
had forgot this secret passage and the door to which thou gavest me the
key on our wedding day. My foolish men, and almost myself, believed thy
signal was a ghostly tapping. But Dickon remembered the passage; and
when I had thrice heard the signal I knew it for the knock that thou
makest at my door,--the signal that means thee and none else in the
world."
Meanwhile old Marvin had made fast the secret door, and we all were
moving toward the stairway, my father's arm encased in link armor thrown
around the waist of the castle's mistress.
"Welladay, my dearest Kate! Not quite so fast and I will tell thee. The
Scots are beaten; and we of Mountjoy had an honorable share in it. The
campaign goes on, but a loyal youth from Mountjoy village found me after
the battle and told of the doings of the traitor, Carleton. Straightway
I took the boy before the King. And he being pleased with some work I
had done that day, did bid me take ten of my best men, make my choice of
ten horses from his train, and ride post haste to the relief of my house
and my lady. We reached the Tarn Rock, half a league from here, at
nightfall, and reconnoitered Carleton's camp. He being in greater force
than we could cope with at once, I bethought me of this old passage from
the wood two furlongs off. And so I have been tap, tap tapping for an
hour, hoping at last to get the news of my coming to thee. And art thou
well, my Kate? And have the rascals done aught to harm thee or Dickon
here?"
"Not a whit, my lord. Save for an arrow stroke our Dickon hath come by
in open fight, and which is already nearly healed. They have made some
mighty threats, and would have carried them through with right good will
could they have reached us; but, thanks to Dickon, to old Marvin here
and the others, they got much worse than they gave. Many a Carleton
knave will ne'er cut another throat, be it of man or pig; and the Old
Wolf himself was very near to his just reward in the shape of a good
steel bolt from Marvin's bow."
On the ramparts next morning swung my father's banner of purple and
gold. Watching our enemies' camp, I could plainly see that the display
of this flag, which they knew should signify naught else than the
presence of the head of our house, early brought most of them, and
finally the Gray Wolf himself, to gaze at the flagstaff. They were
telling one another, as I could well imagine, that this was but a ruse
on the part of the castle's mistress, intended to deceive them into the
belief that Lord Mountjoy had come through their lines in the night.
What was their surprise therefore, when Lord Mountjoy appeared on the
battlements in full armor and wearing the purple plume he had brought
from Italy, and yet more when they saw him attended and followed as he
was. Armored knights, in numbers they could not tell, came into sight
and passed from view on the battlements and at the casements. We could
fairly see the rumor flying through the Carleton camp that Lord Mountjoy
had returned with all his men and by stealth or by magic had passed
their sentinels during the night.
The Gray Wolf stared long and viciously at our battlements, and called
on those with younger eyes to make sure of what he saw. Then with oaths
and curses that made his men quail before him, he gave orders to break
camp and return to Teramore.
By midday the last signs of the siege were gone, the ashes of the
circling camp fires were cold, and the great drawbridge was down once
more. A messenger was sent to the Tarn Rock to bring in the horses and
their guards. In the sunny spring afternoon, when we went forth to
reconnoiter the deserted camps of our enemies, I rode at my father's
side, wearing for the first time the gold-hilted sword which had been
brought from Damascus.
Two months later, the King returning to London, confirmed my father in
possession of his estates, and sent messengers to old Lord Carleton
demanding his instant attendance at court. Again the Old Wolf was ill,
too much so to obey the command of his sovereign; but this time he was
not to rise from his bed as soon as the messengers had turned their
backs.
The wound in his throat made by Marvin's bolt had never fully healed,
and now this, coupled with his old distemper, had laid him low. Even
while the heralds waited, the priest in the great upper chamber was
saying the prayers for the dying. At sunset on that day, I could see
from the Tarn Rock the blue and white banner of Carleton flying at half
mast over the battlements of Teramore.