The two men lay peering over the edge of a low, crumbling wall,
looking down a sharp slope at the garrison below. Row after row of
long, low buildings met their eyes. Behind the barracks, to the
watchers' left, were the stables for the horses; in front of them, the
night watch stood talking or drinking coffee before a blazing fire.
Two sentinels paced back and forth between cornering guardhouses, with
the pickets of the mounted patrols just beyond.
It was now full night. The rising moon was exactly halved, with long
bars of smoky cloud passing at intervals across it. The resulting
twilight was neither pale nor pitch, but a sporadic intermingling of
both. Whether moonlight or deepest shadow fell across the creatures of
earth, seemed entirely a matter of chance.
Neither help nor hindrance, Michael thought. But he expected no more.
Thus far their journey had gone without incident, though the real
difficulty and danger lay ahead. Yet the largest part of what he
fought in that moment was not fear, but a fatigue that bordered on
despair. It was a sore trial to have ridden so far, and lived in
darkness so long, only to arrive weary and unsure at the time of
greatest need, when courage and decisive action were most critical.
As he looked down at the garrison, and on to the Castle in the
distance, he felt again his own frailty and insignificance. Rustic
proverbs about weakness overcoming strength, and water (in time)
eroding the hardest stone, brought little comfort. For Mary and his
mother were imprisoned by the hands of men. Proverbs and faith would
not free them, only active human resistance. His heart beat heavily
against the cold ground. He knew what he must do.
"How do we slip past them?" he asked Purceville.
It was a formidable question. For behind the stables the stone rose
sheer, a bony ridge forming one margin of the high peninsula on which
the Castle was set: a long and difficult climb at best, to an
uncertain end. It also forced them to leave the horse behind, and to
abandon all thoughts of mounted escape.
To the fore of the compound as well, there seemed little hope of
stealth. The only road in passed directly in front of it, full in the
glare of the watchfire. Beyond it, to the right, lay only a narrow
stretch of rough greenbelt, then again the ground rose, rocky and
untenable. Perhaps they might creep along in the far shadows, where
the uneven turf met stone. But one false step, one noisy balk on the
part of the animal, already restive, and they were as good as caught.