"Within there! Don't fire!"
It was only just in time, for half-a-dozen muskets were presented.
The next moment Roy's voice rang out clearly:
"Sergeant Martlet, corporal, Raynes, all of you, we have done our duty,
and it is hopeless to fight longer. You are the only men left. To
resist is to give all your lives for nothing. March out and throw down
your arms."
A groan rose from within, and a figure came to the door-way.
"Don't say that, Master Roy," cried Ben, hoarsely. "Couldn't we do it
if we held out?"
"No; they will blow the place up. The powder is waiting. I am your
captain; I order you to surrender now."
"Master Roy! Master Roy!" cried the old soldier in a piteous voice; "it
was no doing of mine. I was on the alert. Don't think it was any fault
of mine."
"Fault of yours, Ben?" cried Roy. "No, nor mine neither."
"But how did they get in, sir?"
"By the secret passage that we could not find."
"But how? Where can it be?"
"I've been thinking, Ben. I don't know for certain; but it must open
into Master Pawson's room."
"And he let 'em through?"
"Yes; filling the corridors silently with troops while I slept."
"The traitor! Then that was the signal, boy. Oh, my lad, my lad, why
didn't I kill him when I thought it must be he? What about repairing
the stone gallows now?"
"I--don't understand you."
"The lowering of the flag, sir--the lowering of the flag."
"Yes," said the officer, who had advanced to them unobserved in the
gloom of the archway; "that was the signal, sergeant. You were betrayed
from within. Step out now with your men, like the brave fellow you are.
Give me your hand; and let me tell you that I don't believe I could
have taken the place without."
"Am I to surrender, Master Roy?" said the old fellow, bitterly.
"Yes, Ben; it is all over now."
The hilt of a sword was thrust out as the old soldier held it to the
officer by the blade.
"Shake hands with that, sir," he said, bitterly. "I'm a king's man
still.--Forward!"
This to his brave companions; and as they marched slowly out and gave up
their arms, a tremendous roar arose from all assembled in the
court-yard.
It was no derisive cry, no jeer at the conquered, but a full-throated
cheer of admiration for the brave little party, blood-stained, bandaged
roughly, three of them hardly able to keep their feet; and Roy's heart
once more swelled within him in spite of his despair, for he noticed in
the gloom that the officer in command took off his helmet as the men
marched by into the court; and then, as he replaced it, he said quietly
to Roy--
"All this is not necessary, sir.--Quick, one of you; untie this
gentleman's hands."
For the first time that night, Roy felt giddy and sick with pain. But
he roused himself directly, for Master Pawson came up, and spoke quickly
in a low voice to the officer, who replied coldly, and with a ring of
contempt in all as he said, loudly--
"Of course, sir," he said, "in some things, by the terms of your
bargain, you are master here of the place and the estate. All that the
Parliament desires is the destruction of the castle as a stronghold; but
as to the garrison, that is another thing. We shall hold the place for
a time, and while I await further orders the prisoners will be my
charge."
He turned to give some orders, and the secretary turned to Roy.
"Yes," he said, "I am master here now of everything; so go and take off
all that tawdry rubbish. You will never make a soldier, and I shall
tame down all this bullying haughtiness. You never thought my day would
come when I was forced to put up with the insults and jeers of a
miserable cub of a boy. But every man has his day. Your party has gone
down at last, and mine is in power. Ah, you may pretend not to hear me,
and that you treat everything I say with contempt! Judas, am I, because
I saved bloodshed by a diplomatic stroke? Well, we shall see. You'll
come cringing to me soon."
"When my father returns, and, if you have not already been hung for a
traitor, he punishes you as you deserve. Shall I cringe to you, then?"
"Your father," said Pawson, mockingly. "Your proud swashbuckling father
is dead,--killed as he deserved, with scores of his fighting bullies.
You may look to me as your father now. Your mother and I thought it
better to end this sham defence at once. Hah! does that sting you? I
thought I should manage it at last. Yes, she thought with me. A fine,
handsome woman still, Roy, and a clever one, though she did pet and
spoil her idiotic cub of a son. But there, I forgive her, and we
understand each other fully now. Ha, ha! I thought that would touch
you home!"
Roy nearly staggered as he heard these words, and the next moment he
would have flung himself at the traitor's throat; but just then a
friendly hand was laid upon his shoulder, and the officer said--
"I have given orders for your wounded men to be seen by our doctor.
Meanwhile, you had better come with me."
He passed his arm through Roy's, and turned his back on Pawson, marching
the lad towards the private apartments of the castle; while the traitor
stood gazing after them, stung as deeply as his victim now in turn.