At first I saw nothing but a jagged line of cliff-top, lower than where
we stood, with the sea beyond. Then I perceived that where Ludar
pointed the line broke suddenly, and disclosed a great naked rock
standing alone, sheer out of the water which leapt wildly all round it
and thundered into the cave at its base. I looked further. I saw a
narrow bridge across the chasm, while what I had first thought to be
rugged piles of rock took the form of grim battlements and towers,
rising so straight from the edge of the rock that I had thought them a
part of it. Across the bridge frowned an angry portcullis. As the
place stood, it looked as if one man could hold it against a thousand,
so unapproachable did it seem. On our side the bridge, on the mainland,
was a large courtyard or barrack, with an outer wall and moat round it,
of itself no easy place to carry; and when, beyond that, hung this angry
castle, perched like an eagle over the sea, I marvelled not so much that
the McDonnells should hope to take it, as that they should ever have
lost it.
I could understand Ludar's excitement as he stood there and gazed at
this old fortress of his fathers, with the standard of the foreign
invader floating above its top-mast tower. He said nothing; yet, I
could tell by the heaving of his chest, what thoughts were passing in
his mind, what hatred of the usurper, what impatience to stand once more
on those battlements and fling open the gate to his noble father.
The light faded from the sky as we stood there, until turrets and rock
and flag melted away into a common blackness, and left us only the
thunder of the waves in the hollows below, to tell us where Dunluce
stood. Then Ludar led me quickly back to his men.
We found no little stir afoot. For the McDonnells' scouts had come in
with a man of the English garrison whom they had found foraging for
meat; while, almost at the same moment, a herdsman from Ramore (which
was a district westward of us), had come to tell us news of the enemy.
Ludar heard the soldier first.
"We be but thirty men in yonder hold," said he. "For so soon as the
alarm spread that Castleroe and the town of Coleraine were to be
attacked, fifty of our guard and three cannon were drawn away thither
this very morning. I know it, for I stood sentinel when Captain
Merriman--"
"He! is he there?" demanded Ludar.
"No, in truth," said the soldier, "'twas he rode over from Castleroe and
took away half our men, leaving us, in place, a parcel of puling women
to mind, whom he might have kept with better grace at Castleroe."
"And who are these women?" asked Ludar with heightened colour.
"They say the fair one is a sweetheart of his own--a straight enough
lass, but not of the sort I would willingly undertake myself. Some say
she is kinswoman to the O'Neill or his lady, whom the captain was sent
to guard hither; but, to my thinking, he was on his own business more
than Turlogh's, and when this fighting be over we shall see him come
back for his ladybird. I pray you, gentles," continued this man, who
was of a careless sort, and distressed by no mischance, "permit me to
return to the castle with this brace of birds. They are, in fact, for
this same young lady, to whom our coarse fare hath little to recommend
it, and who, being sickly, needs a dainty. I stand a fair chance to be
shot for a truant when I get back; yet I may as well be that as hanged
here by your worships. The only difference will be that the maiden will
get her supper in one case, and miss it in the other."
"Go back," said Ludar. "If you be a liar, you are a rare one; if you be
not, you are an honest fellow, and can be trusted to report nothing of
what you have seen here."
"That will I not," said the man. "But when I see thee on the
drawbridge, I shall let fly at thee, by your leave, as at an enemy of my
Queen."
"You shall," said Ludar. "I would scorn you if you did not. But
hearken, take the maiden this flower (and he pulled a poppy flower from
the grass), and tell her, before it droop he who sent it will be in
Dunluce."
"Marry will I," said the soldier, laughing. "But thou wilt need to
hasten, my master, for poppies fade fast. And if, as I expect, thou get
no further than the bridge, or over the edge of it, you may trust me to
look to the lady for your honour's sake."
So the man departed amidst not a few murmurings from our men, who
understood not letting an enemy go scot free, unless it were to betray
his party into their hands.
The other fellow, one of the men of the Route, who served which ever
party he must, confirmed what the Englishman had said respecting the
movements of the enemy. Sorley Boy had for weeks past let it be hinted,
that when he came to strike, it would be at the Castle on the Bann on
the one hand, and at Knockfergus, far to the south, on the other.
Therefore, while Turlogh Luinech O'Neill tarried at Toome to watch what
passed in the latter region, Captain Merriman strengthened Coleraine and
the forts on the Bann in order to hold the former. Meanwhile, Sorley
Boy, having thus made the enemy busy elsewhere, was coming down, as I
have said, betwixt the two, at Dunluce. No doubt but the English
suspected some scheme, for they withdrew only parts of their garrisons
along the coast, depending on the natural strength of Dunluce and the
other castles to hold off any attack till succour should arrive. But
since the old fox never showed front till he was ready to spring, no one
knew exactly where to expect Sorley Boy; whereby the enemy was forced to
remain scattered, in little companies, all along the coast, from Larne
to the Bann Mouth. At any rate, said the man, after the signals with
Cantire last night, no one would expect the blow to fall till the
Scottish clansmen were landed, which might be this time to-morrow.
Ludar bade the man remain in their company, and then called me and two
others of his chief men aside.
"'Tis plain," said he, "our chance is now or never. Give the men time
to sup, and then take forward your guns and have at them in front. You
two," said he, addressing the two Scots, "with the main body are to
carry the outworks, and pounding at the enemy's gate, keep him busy to
landward. Humphrey, and I, and twenty more must try the sea front. As
soon as you hear us shout from within, let drive every bolt you have,
and the place is ours."
"But," said I, "you said that on the seaward side the place is
unassailable."
"It is, except to McDonnells. I did not play on these rocks for naught
when a boy. Only pick me out twenty resolute men, and bring them round
secretly to the first break in the cliffs eastward. I shall be there."
'Twas easy to find twenty men ready for the venture. Nay, the hard
thing was to take no more than twenty, for a hundred were eager to come.
No sooner were we started, than the main body, as agreed, leapt from
their hiding-place, and marched rapidly on Dunluce.
Our guide took us a mile eastward of the castle, where at the head of
the narrow gully that led from the cliff to the shore, stood Ludar,
pistol in hand, waiting for us. He turned silently as we came up, and,
motioning to us to follow, began at once the steep descent. The cleft
was so narrow that one man could only lower himself at a time, and that
swinging as often as not by his elbows and hands. For me it was harder
work than for the active redshanks. As for Ludar, he stood at the
bottom, while I, with half the troop growling at my back, was stuck
midway. Yet we all reached the bottom in time; and as we did so, the
boom of a gun from the rocks above us told that our men were already
before the castle knocking for entrance.
Then we waded and scrambled in the darkness at the water's edge, till we
came to the base of the great black rock on which the fortress stood.
Often we were wading waist-deep in the pools, and often on hands and
knees drawing ourselves over the surf-swept ledges. Ludar seemed to
know every step of the way, despite the years that had passed since as a
boy he hunted there for sea-birds, nor was he in the humour now to
slacken speed for us who knew not when we put out one foot, where we
should land with the other.
Above us, the noise of the guns was already lost in the thunder of the
waves as they echoed in the cave under the castle rock. It seemed, as
we stood there and looked up, that not a foot further could we go. The
great angry cliff beetled over our heads, and on its very edge, far
above, we might discern against the gloomy sky the dim corner of a
buttress.
But it was not here that Ludar meant us to ascend. "Now, my men," said
he, "put your powder in your bonnets and follow me."
Whereupon he took a step up to his neck in the deep water, and started
to swim. One by one we followed him, armed and clad as we were, into
the angry surf. 'Twas a perilous voyage, and had not the tide been full
and high above the rocks, we should not have come out of it, some of us,
sound in limb or wind. Once or twice as I was flung upwards with a
swirl almost upon the jagged cliff, I thought my last hour was come, and
wondered whose eye would be dim at the news of my end. Then, when, with
a like swirl I was heaved back into the safety of deep water, I thought
what a big venture was this, and who would not follow when Ludar led?
So, I scarce know how, we rounded the mouth of that resounding cave and
stood panting on the narrow ledge on the far side. I say, we stood--yet
not all. Of the twenty-two men who had plunged, only nineteen
foregathered at the far side.
"'Twas bravely swum," said Ludar, "and though it has cost McDonnell
three brave sons, it has won him Dunluce. I promise you, we shall go
back by land."
I asked him, where next? and he pointed up to what seemed a rock as
sheer and threatening as ever we had met on the other side. Nay, on
this side, the castle itself seemed to hang clean over the edge.
"There is a path, I remember," said he, "by which in old days the
McQuillans came down to the cave. I went up it myself as a boy. See
here."
And he led us a few steps round, as if back towards the cave; where was
an iron spike driven into the smooth rock a little above the edge of the
water.
He reached forward at this, and swung himself out over the water till
his feet rested on a narrow ledge beyond, scarce the width of his boot,
at the water's edge. Above this was a jutting nose of rock by which he
raised himself on to the peg itself, and from that, by a long stride, on
to a safer ledge above.
"Follow me," he cried, "and look not back."
Painfully and clumsily I achieved the perilous stride, and found myself
at the entrance of a crack in the rock, into which the waves below
dashed and thundered, and then, beaten back, shot up in an angry column
high over our heads, descending with a whirl that all but swept us
headlong from our perch.
Up this rift I watched Ludar clamber, losing him now and again in the
shooting foam, and now and again, as the spray cleared off, seeing him
safe, and ever a foot higher than before. How I followed him 'twould be
hard to say. Yet the rock seemed riven into cracks which gave us a
tolerable foothold, the better as we got higher up; and had it not been
for the constant dash of the water, and the darkness, it might have been
accounted passable enough. As it was, but for Ludar's strong arm above
me, I should have lost my feet twice, and in my fall, perchance, might
have carried away one or more of those who followed.
When we reached the top of the rift, a still worse peril awaited. For
now we had to crawl painfully for some distance along a narrow edge on
the face of the naked rock, with little hold for our hands, and, since
the ledge slanted downward and was wet and slippery with the spray,
still less for our feet. Even Ludar, I could see, was at a loss. But
to halt now was useless; to turn back impossible. So, gripping as best
he might at the rugged rock, he stepped boldly on to the ledge. I could
but follow. Yet, at the first step, my feet slid from under me, and but
that my hands held firm I should have been headlong. Inch by inch
hugging the cliff, with our backs to the sea, we crawled over that
treacherous ledge, sometimes slipping to our knees, sometimes hanging
sheer by our hands.
Once, in a moment of weakness, I looked back to see how our men were
faring. As I did so, a youth, next after me, a tall, brave youth who
had been foremost in all the peril, suddenly staggered and slipped. For
a moment he hung by hand and knee to the ledge; the next with a loud
groan he fell backwards into the darkness. I heard the crash of his
body on the rocks below, and, in my horror, my own grip for an instant
relaxed, and I felt myself following. But a strong hand caught me and
held me up, and Ludar said:
"Humphrey, are you a fool? Lookup, man, or you are lost."
After that I had eyes for naught but the cliff before me. And although,
before that terrible passage was ended, I heard five more groans and as
many more crashes on the rocks below, I managed to keep my own footing,
till at last, with my head in a whirl, I stood beside Ludar on a
broader, straighter ledge, within a dozen feet of the cliff-top.
Ludar was pale, and his breath came and went hard, as he made room for
me beside him. He too had heard those terrible crashes.
"That path," said he, "is easier passed by a boy than a man. Had I
known what it would cost us-- Yet, come on now!"
There was indeed no time to tarry, for the men behind--all that were
left of them--came up, and we must perforce move forward to make them
room.
Now, once more we heard the guns above, and a mighty shouting on the far
side of the Castle. But, towards us, all frowned black and solitary.
The short distance yet to climb compared with what we had passed, was
easy. For, steep as it was and often overhanging the sea, the rock here
was rough and dry, and our feet held fast. Just as we came to the top,
Ludar turned.
"Follow close, my men; shout, and discharge your pieces if you can,"
called he, "and once entered, make for the drawbridge."
Almost as he spoke, we heard a shout above us, and the report of a
musket discharged into the darkness. A sentinel had heard our voices,
and this was his greeting.
Next moment I saw Ludar on the top, struggling with a man. It was too
dark to discern which was which; but a moment later, one of the two
staggered a step backwards to the edge. There was a yell, a shower of
loose earth; then, as I stood below clinging to the rock, a dark mass
fell betwixt me and the sky, brushing me as it passed, and bounding from
the ledge below with a hideous crash out into the deepness.
I stood there an instant as cold and pulse-less as the stone against
which I leaned. What if this were Ludar who had fallen?
A voice from above restored me to life.
"Quick there, come up, and the place is ours!"
In a moment I stood beside him on the narrow edge of grass between the
castle wall and the brink. We could hear the shouts and firing away at
the gate, but not a soul was left here to bar our passage. Even the
sentinel's shot had passed unheeded. There was a low window leading to
one of the offices of the castle, through which we clambered. Next
moment we found ourselves standing within the walls of Dunluce.
"_Froach Eilan_!" shouted Ludar, drawing his dirk and waving on his men.
"_Froach Eilan! Ludar_!" shouted we, some of us discharging our pieces
to add to the uproar, while one man exploded a swivel gun which stood on
the seaward battlement.
The effect was magical. There was a sudden pause in the fighting at the
bridge. Then rose a mighty answering cry from our McDonnells outside;
while the garrison, caught thus between the two fires, looked this way
and that, not knowing against which foe to turn.
Though we were but thirteen--nay, only twelve, for the English sentinel
in his fall had swept yet another of our brave fellows from the ledge--
it was hard for any one to say in the darkness how many we were or how
many were yet behind; and the thirty defenders to the place, when once
the panic had spread, were in no mood for waiting to see. Many of them
laid down their arms at once. Some, still more terrified, attempted to
descend the rocks, and so perished; others plunged boldly into the gulf,
and there was an end of them.
Ludar meanwhile rushed to the bridge. Many a brave fellow to-night had
met his fate on that narrow way. For so far, no assault from our men
without had been able to shake the strong portcullis, or make an opening
on the grim face of the fortress. Indeed, it seemed to me, a single
child in the place might have defied an army, so unassailable did it
appear. Our men had carried easily the outer courtyard across the moat,
driving the slender garrison back, with only time to lower the gate and
shut themselves within before the assault began. But, though they
thundered with shot and rock, all was of no avail. The guns of the
besieged swept the narrow bridge on either side, and scarce a man who
ventured across it returned alive.
Now, all was suddenly changed. Ludar, with a wild shout, fell on the
keepers of the gate within and drove them from their post. So sudden
was his onslaught, that none had time to ask whence he came or how many
followed him. Only a handful of soldiers withstood us. Among these was
the gay English fellow whom we had let go an hour or so back; and who
now, true to his word, rushed sword in hand at Ludar. I wondered to see
what Ludar would do, for kill the fellow I knew he would not. He met
the Englishman's sword with a tremendous blow from his own sheathed
weapon, which shivered it. Then with his fist he felled him to the
ground, and, thus stunned, lifted him and laid him high on a parapet of
the wall till he should come to.
Ere this was done, I and the rest of our men were at it, hand to hand
with the few fighting men of the garrison that remained. It did not
take long, for there were but half-a-dozen of them, and valiantly as
they fought, we were too many and strong for them. One by one they fell
or yielded, all except one stout man, the constable of the place, Peter
Gary by name, who fought as long as he could stand, and then, before our
eyes, flung first his sword, then himself, headlong from the cliff.
That ended the matter. Next moment, the English flag--alas! that I
should say it--tumbled from the battlements; and with shouts of "_Ludar!
Froach Eilan_!" the portcullis swung open, and Dunluce belonged once
more to the McDonnells.
Leaving us to guard the tower where most of the enemy had shut
themselves, Ludar stalked off to a remote corner of the castle; whence
in a short time he returned and called me.
"Humphrey," said he, "the maiden is safe, thank God. Go to her and see
what she and the old nurse may need. I have other work to do. Friend,"
added he, "is this all a dream? Is this indeed the castle of my
fathers? and when Sorley Boy comes, shall it be I who will give it into
his hands?"
"You and no other," said I, "for the place is yours."
"Alas!" he said, "at what cost! When I heard my brave men fall from the
cliff like sheep, Humphrey, I was minded not to stay there myself. But
adieu now. To the maiden! Keep her safe for me."
He waved his hand and stalked to the gate, where I watched him, erect,
amid his cheering clansmen, with a joyous smile on his face such as I
had rarely seen there before, and which I knew belonged in part to the
noble chieftain, his father, and in part to his true love, the maiden.
Alas! 'twas many a long day before I was to see him smile again like
that, as you shall hear.
For the present, I went light at heart to the maiden, whom I found pale,
indeed (for she had been ill), but serene and happy. The old nurse,
who, I thought, ill liked my intrusion, forbade me to weary her young
mistress with talk or questions.
"A plague on every man of you," growled the old woman. "You're only
matched by the women, who be worse. Did I not tell you, Humphrey
Dexter, my Lady Cantire would be no friend to my sweet mistress? 'Twas
in vain the silly child tried to wheedle her over. Wheedle the Tether
Stake! My lady bade her be civil to the Captain, if she would please
her step-dame. And when the maiden put down her little foot at that,
she was clapped within walls like a rogue, and fed on bread and water.
Little harm that would have done, had not the captain himself served her
as jailer, and every day thrust his evil presence into our company. I
tell thee, Humphrey, that maiden hath fought as well as you or any of
them; and shame on your sex, say I, that this devil should be one of
you! Ill? No wonder if she was ill; with not a soul to pity her save a
poor old body like me. Where's her father, to leave her thus? Eh, you
mug-faced champion, you?"
"Indeed, Judy," said I, taken aback, "'tis a terrible case; but you
cannot blame me."
"Not blame you! when instead of playing soldier you might have ridden to
Toome and brought Turlogh to help us? Take shame on yourself; and, when
you see the maiden weak and white, thank God her death be not on your
head. For dead she would have been, like the brave maid she is, before
ever she would have looked at this fellow-countryman of yours. He
thought he had her safe, forsooth, when he whipped her off here and took
the key with him. Fiend! Little wonder if she hates the name of you
English!"
I grew angry at this, and told her she was a churlish old woman and had
best leave me in peace till her temper was better. So we parted ill
friends; I to guard the door, she to carry her waspish tongue where she
list.