propelled over the lake, and four or five of the new-made platforms,
each one pressed down by the burthen of men upon it. The number of our
assailants was, I suppose, above a hundred, and against them we had less
than a score. These by my appointment had taken post along the wall,
having, besides their weapons, fragments of rock gathered from the
ruinous battlements, stink-pots of homely device, and such other
missiles as the people had been able to prepare. Of firearms we had but
two old rusty pieces, my own pistol and the guns of my men having been
sent away the night before with the succours dispatched to Kedagh
O'Hagan. But I observed joyfully that our assaulters were in little
better case in that regard, for when their quaint, unsteady vessels had
come within shot of us, they discharged upon us only two or three
bullets, which did us no harm, so ill-directed were they. My man Stubbs
and another fellow gave them a shot apiece in reply, or rather they
would have done, had not Stubbs' musket burst in his hand, one of the
fragments striking his brow and stunning him for some time. He bore the
mark of it to his dying day.
As for the other men, I had charged them to do nothing until the
adversary should come directly beneath the wall. In their haste and
eagerness they did not all obey my behest, but the most part did, so
that the vessels, when they drew in under, were assailed by a tempest of
missiles which did much execution, and sent one of the frail barks of
hide topsy-turvy to the bottom. Our garrison suffered no hurt at this
first onset, save that one foolish old man, forgetful of my warning to
cover himself with the wall, peered over to see what had been done, and
fell with a dart in his throat.
But we being so few, certain of the enemy's vessels escaped hurt
altogether; and were no sooner beneath the wall than their crews hoisted
the ladders, and fixing the hooks in crevices and gaps of the stonework,
began incontinently to swarm aloft. Even the ladders were more in
number than all the men of the garrison, and had Rory Mac Shane
possessed a jot of generalship, it would have gone hardly with us. But
he had taken no care that all his men should begin to mount at the same
instant. Every man did what seemed good in his own eyes, so that we
were able to run from one ladder to another, and with push of pike, or
knife-thrust, or indeed with bare fists, to hurl the climbers down into
the water or upon their platforms, ere they could make good their
footing on the wall. This was, moreover, the easier for us, inasmuch as
only one man could ascend each ladder at one time.
Yet we were hard put to it, I assure you. I had posted Stubbs at one
end of our spread line, holding myself at the other, both of us ready to
hasten to any spot that might seem more desperately menaced. So nimble
were the attackers that we had much ado to convey ourselves with speed
enough from point to point, and I am sure that neither he nor I had ever
in our lives before so vigorously bestirred ourselves. Not once nor
twice did we come in the bare nick of time where the danger threatened,
and it being midday, and hot, we were soon reeking with our sweat.
From the beginning I had marked Rory Mac Shane himself, and kept as
close a watch upon him as in the press and hurry I could. Being, as I
have said, a man of monstrous bulk, he was not so nimble in his motions
as the leaner fry, nor did not essay to mount upon a ladder among the
first. But as I turned from dealing with one hardy climber, I espied
Mac Shane, a good way off, swing himself from the top of his ladder and
throw one leg across the wall, plying a doughty sword against an ancient
servitor that sought to stay him with his pike. At the very instant of
my espying him, he cleft the pike shaft clean through with his blade,
and dealt the old man so grievous a wound that he dropt to the ground,
coughing out his life-blood. I had leapt towards him, and immediately
afterwards came upon him a-tilt; and having the advantage of him, as
being balanced insecurely on the wall, I doubt not I should have sped
him but that the dying man lay heaped between us. Whereby my sweeping
stroke failed somewhat of its full momentum, and Mac Shane turned my
sword aside as it was in the very act of falling upon his head. But
giving back before my onslaught, he was dislodged from his perch, and
toppled with a lusty shout backward into the water.
I had not time to look what had become of him, even had it been prudent
to show my head above the parapet, being drawn to another part of the
wall on a like errand. But after a minute or two, when I noted a
faltering in the attack, I supposed that he had at the least got some
damage, and hoped that it was grievous enough to render him unable for
further fighting. There came no more men up the ladders; which seeing,
we clambered upon the wall, and beheld the whole rout setting their
craft towards the shore, some few, who had lost their standing, swimming
by their side. We sped them on their way with a shower of whatsoever
missiles we could first lay hands upon, and discovered that in the hurry
of their flight they had left two of their ladders still hooked upon the
wall. These we took as trophies. I was nowise ill-pleased to see Rory
Mac Shane in his boat bearing marks of his discomfiture, his yellow hair
falling lank like seaweed over his cheeks, and his obese frame seeming
somewhat shrunken by reason that his sodden clothing hung more closely
upon him.
When I turned from observing him, the Lady Sheila met me, bearing a
brimming cup of mead.
"'Tis nectar, from a hand fair as Hebe's," said I, quaffing deeply.
The lustre left her face, and she looked stonily upon me, whereat in
some surprise I said--
"Why, mistress, have I said aught amiss?"
"Nay, sir, what you say is naught to me, but--but I like not to be
equalled with some English wench."
"Good now!" said I, and could not forbear smiling. "Know you, mistress,
that Hebe was no English wench, but a fair maiden of most illustrious
lineage, daughter of gods, herself a goddess, eternally young, and her
office was to bear the wine-cup of the high Olympians, and I bethink me
she was given as wife to Hercules himself."
"Oh, mock me not with your Hebes and your Hercules!" she cried in a pet.
"I wish I had not brought you drink."
"Nay, madam, for that I thank you heartily; and I shall hope to give you
a better opinion of those of whom the poets sing, after this business is
concluded."
"A long after, I fear me," she said, with a look of trouble.
"Why no; I trow we have taught them a lesson," I said.
"You English are puffed up with your own conceit," she cried scornfully.
"Think you an Irishman, and Rory Mac Shane, will be daunted by one
failure? He is reputed the best fighter of all men hereabout. But
indeed, Master Rudd"--and 'twas marvellous how sudden her mood would
change--"indeed, we talk idly, when my poor servants lie wounded. Help
me, good sir, to tend them."
"Two are past help, madam," I said gravely; "the rest have suffered
little hurt."
She flew from me to the old man slain by Rory Mac Shane, and I saw the
fair maid drop upon her knees, and breathe a prayer with moist eyes for
the poor soul departed.
There was peace and a great quietude all that afternoon, though I took
it to be that ominous calm which oft precedes a storm. Ever and anon
there came to my ears from the distant woodland the ringing of axes, and
I guessed that more ladders were to be made, and my heart sank; for with
twice the number the adversaries would be too many for us to deal with
piecemeal. But the day wore to evening, and the sun went down, and yet
there was nothing done. I had set watchmen upon the battlements, to
inform me if they saw aught; but when the country was blanketed in
darkness, and the silence was unbroken save by the croaking of frogs
about the margin of the lake, I supposed that our foes were taking their
rest, to fortify themselves against the labours of another day.
It wanted an hour or two of midnight when my man Stubbs came to me from
his outpost on the walls, and told me that the fleet of rafts and
hide-boats had put forth from the shore, and was approaching in a
ghostly silence. Now I have never held it a part of valiancy in a true
warrior to oppose himself to invincible odds. My men being so few and
weak, 'twas against reason that they should withstand a more numerous
foe, who, taught by precedent mishap, would without question avoid their
former errors, and, covered by the darkness, set up their ladders more
thickly than we could counter. I shrank from throwing lives away
vainly, and saw that we must abandon our outer rampart, and shut
ourselves within the keep, whereto there was but one entrance, from the
courtyard, and behind whose massy door I thought we should be safe.
Accordingly I gathered all my company and withdrew them into the keep,
barring the door with my own hand, and I sent the men into the
watch-house above the door, bidding them hurl their missiles upon the
heads of the enemy when they should make to assault us.
My prescience was approved ere many minutes were past. Looking from a
window in the keep, I saw the wall thick with dark shapes mounting from
innumerable ladders, and leaping down into the courtyard with scarce a
sound. Some of them turned about, and began to haul on ropes, and there
came over the wall two or three of their rafts, whereat I wondered, not
divining what purpose these could serve. But in a little I saw their
cunning device, for the Irishmen hoisted the rafts upon their shoulders,
and employing them in the manner of what the Romans called a testudo,
advanced, thus defended, towards the door of the keep. The missiles
launched on them from above bounded off from those broad shields, as I
knew by hearing rather than sight, for being now come within the shadow
of the keep they were no longer visible.
Expecting a vehement onset upon the door, I ran down and posted myself
with Stubbs and two or three more at the foot of the stairway. Mistress
O'Hagan, in defiance of my express charge, had not taken refuge upon the
roof with her household women, but stayed in a little room hard by the
first winding of the stair. As it fell out, this flat obstinacy turned
to our advantage.
We waited there at the foot of the stair, holding our weapons in
readiness; but when, after some time, no assault was made upon the door,
I began to be uneasy, and wished I might contrive to see what was
a-doing. We were in utter darkness, and such poor candles as were
commonly used would not suffice to cast an effectual light a yard length
beyond the wall; but a thought coming into my head, I bade Stubbs take
command of the men, and running upstairs to the lady, asked her if she
had any means of making torches or flares. Instantly she led me by a
back stair to a lower room where was a quantity of tow, and while I
shredded this and fashioned it to my purpose, she fetched me a pot of
swine's lard and two long and slender chains. Then returning to the
upper room, we kindled these flares, and let them down over the
window-sill into the courtyard, amid a great outcry from the enemy. By
their light we saw the courtyard swarming with men, and our people were
able to take surer aim with their missiles; but we had little good of
them, as you shall see.
I observed that the penthouse of rafts was still about the door, and was
much perplexed as to what was a-doing there. On a sudden the rafts fell
with a clatter upon the ground, and the men whom they had sheltered ran
swiftly towards the wall, whither their comrades had retreated so as
they might be the farthest possible from our missiles. The meaning of
their behaviour flashed upon my mind, and in my haste letting fall the
chain I held, I caught Mistress Sheila about the waist, and carried her
swiftly into her inner room. I had but just set her down, she still
grasping her chain, when from below there burst a shattering din, and
the keep seemed to rock upon its base. Springing down the stairs, I
rushed into the bitter smother of gunpowder smoke, and saw by the light
of my dropped flare, that shone through a rent in the door, the men I
had left thrown down in a heap upon the floor. One of them was dead,
but the rest, though bruised and shaken, recovered from their benumbment
in time to stand with me upon the lowest stairs, before the enemy,
leaping across the courtyard, came with fierce shouts to enter by the
breach they had made.
Happily it was so narrow as that only two men could come through
abreast, and the stair wound in such sort that we had free play for our
right arms, while the enemy were impeded by the round of the wall. So
close cramped were we that there was no place for the subtleties of
fence, in which we might have had some superiority over our less skilled
adversaries. Stubbs and I, standing the lowest, plied our swords, made
for nicer work, with mere vehemency, beating aside the weapons of our
assailants, and using our points whenever we could. Behind us were two
Irishmen armed with pikes, which they thrust between us, with no small
risk to ourselves; and yet higher, a man hurled stones over our heads
upon the thickening crowd.
The stairway rang with the clash of steel, the shouts of the enemy, and
the groans of such as fell to our weapons. So little light had we from
the expiring flare, and so confused was the mellay, that for some little
while I was unable to discern the form of him I especially sought; but
at length I perceived Rory Mac Shane striding over the prone bodies at
the foot of the stairs, and mounting among three or four of his men. I
was thinking to hazard a swift descent upon him, but anon a musket shot
from the door struck the pikeman behind me, and he lurched against me,
so that I could barely keep my feet. Another of my good Irishmen
stooped to lift the pike that had fallen from his comrade's hand, and in
defending him I crossed the guard of Rory Mac Shane, and gave him the
point of my sword in the throat at the opening of his tunic. He skipped
back in time to escape mortal hurt, and at that instant a man one step
below him lunged fiercely, and thrust the point of his long spear
through the calf of my right leg. Mac Shane was roaring with pain, and
upon his stepping back to staunch his wound, his followers drew away,
giving us some respite, whereby I was able to make a shift to bind my
handkerchief about my hurt. As I bent down I staggered and would have
fallen but for the sustaining arm of Stubbs. My faintness filled me
with dread; I would have given a world for a cup of water; and I
sickened with dismay as I thought of what the end might be if my
draining blood left me no strength to endure the fight.
[Illustration: I CROSSED THE GUARD OF RORY MAC SHANE, AND GAVE HIM THE
POINT OF MY SWORD]
The intermission was brief. Mac Shane gathered a little group about
him, and setting up before them a portion of one of their rafts, they
charged with the utmost impetuosity up the stairs. We were driven
before them, hacking vainly at their shield. I cried to the man above
me to stand by the door at the first landing; then bidding Stubbs run
for his life, I made one more desperate onslaught upon the raft, and
limping up with what speed I might, I slammed the door in the face of
the enemy, and fell in much pain and giddiness upon the floor.
There coming out of my swoon I found my lady kneeling beside me, holding
a cup from which she had poured wine between my lips. By the light of a
candle which Stubbs had kindled I saw her face, ashy pale, but bending
upon me so sweetly compassionate a look as shed upon my spirit abundant
solace for my pain. I asked if all was well, and heard with no little
amazement that an hour had gone since I shut-to the door, which the
enemy had refrained as yet from anyways assaulting. I conjectured that
they were biding their time till morning illumined the scene, being in
no dubiety of the ultimate act, since they had us caged like rats in a
trap. Indeed, they might wait for famine to vanquish us, unless
perchance they had some dread of the return of Kedagh O'Hagan. That we
could resist them long had no hope at all, for the upper doors might be
forced more easily than the great door below, and we should be pressed
back to the roof, where, overpowered by their greater numbers, we must
succumb. It seemed that my eyes were the index to my thoughts, for
looking earnestly upon me, the lady said--
[Illustration: I FOUND MY LADY KNEELING BESIDE ME, HOLDING A CUP]
"Good sir, you shall suffer no more for me. 'Tis not meet that a
stranger lose his life in so poor a cause."
"Nay, madam," said I, "the cause is good, and the stranger not so
strange neither. Besides, what will you do?"
"I will purchase your safety by yielding of the castle," said she.
"And Rory Mac Shane?" I hinted.
She winced a little, and a shudder ran through her.
"There is always the lake," she said in a whisper.
"O that I had a troop of Hilary Rawdon's men, or Toby Caulfeild's, or
any other my companions?" I groaned out, as the meaning of her words
smote upon my perception. And then, to ease the time, she questioned me
of those friends I had mentioned; and as we talked of matchless doings
by land and sea, beguiling thus our anxious spirits, the dawn crept upon
us, and the sweet descant of a lark's song floated in at the open
window.
"'Hark, hark, the lark at heaven's gate sings,'" I said, using Will
Shakespeare's words. "Methinks that warble is of good augury for us."
And as I rose stiffly to my feet, I heard faintly through the door the
clash and rumble of armed men stirring below.
"Get you upon the roof, mistress," I said hastily, taking my sword, and
though I spoke masterfully, in a manner that had angered her before, she
made no opposition, but flitted away, turning at the bend of the stair
to give me a last look, mute but eloquent.
I dispatched all the men but three to the roof, bidding them hold the
trap open for the final retreat. Hardly were they gone when there
resounded a shattering blow upon the door. With my three men I stood
upon the stairway, commending myself to God, and presently the door fell
in before the redoubled assaults of a ram which the enemy had contrived
to make, and there burst upon us Rory Mac Shane and a cluster of his
minions. They were beset by so fierce a hail of stones from above that
they gave back, but returned directly, bearing the shield of wood which
we had aforetime proved invulnerable. Little by little the vehemency of
their onset drove us back from one step to another. One of my Irishmen
gasped out his life as a musket shot channelled his lungs. I heard my
good Stubbs groan, and knew by and by that a dart had transfixed his
arm. In that extremity I looked for Sergeant Death to lay his
peremptory arrest upon me; but on a sudden, from above, I heard my
lady's voice cry with a ringing gladness that help was at hand. Whether
the adversary understood her words I know not, but their import was not
to be mistaken. Their fierce shouts sank to a sudden stillness; their
ascent was stayed; and from below there rose the cries of men stricken
with astonishment and fear. And as our near opponents halted in the
pause of irresolution, I took a leap, and lighting full upon their
wooden shield, dashed it and the men beneath pell-mell to the landing.
And Rory Mac Shane, casting up his arms when he found himself staggering
backward, bared his great breast to the unchecked thrust of my sword,
which passing clean through him bored a passage for his soul.
*VIII*
"How now, my bully rook!" sang a well-remembered bluff voice in my ear
some while after, for my ill-bound wound had bled afresh, and I had lain
as one dead. "What! hast cheated man's last enemy yet once again?"
[Illustration: "HOW NOW, MY BULLY ROOK!"]
And lifting my eyes I beheld the round ruby countenance of my comrade
Toby Caulfeild, that commanded a troop of horse in the army of the Lord
Deputy.
"All's well?" I asked him feebly.
"All's well that ends well," said he, "though I misdoubt the end's not
yet."
"My Lady Sheila?" I said.
"Ah yes, I have heard the name," said he drily. "For a good hour you
have done nothing but prattle of Sheilas and Hebes, and Hercules and
roarers, mingling Christian and heathen in such sort that my very ears
blushed to hear you."
"What is done?" said I.
"Sundry things that cannot be undone," said he, "namely, many ruffians
sent to their account, many more so slashed and carved that all the
surgeons in Christendom could not make of them aught but patchwork. We
came in time to finish your work, my Chris, but only just in time."
"I heard the lark singing," said I, wandering somewhat in my wits.
"And shall again," said he; "but indeed I know a song worthy two of
that, and that was carolled by the rosy lips of a most enchanting
damsel. Hark! I hear it even now."
And I too heard the low, sweet music of my lady's voice, trolling a
ditty in a chamber not far away. And there broke into it the loud,
rough utterance of a man, speaking words in the Irish tongue, and the
song ceased.
"What rude unmannerly lubber----" I was beginning, but Toby checked me.
"Tush! a father stands on no ceremony with his child," he said.
"Her father!" said I.
"Ay, her father, Kedagh O'Hagan, the arrantest rebel and the jolliest
old swasher that ever 'scaped hanging. Hark while I tell you. We were
in full cry after the O'Neill when a tatterdemalion kerne came hot-foot
after us, bearing a letter very fairly writ but somewhat indictable in
the article of spelling, addressed to our general; the which perusing,
he read a very painful threat to hang you up if O'Hagan should suffer so
much as the clipping of a hair. He twitched his brows--you know his
way--and said that having fallen into the hands of some apparent
termagant or vixenish shrew you must e'en abide his leisure, swearing
roundly that Christopher Rudd's head was nought in comparison with the
rascal O'Neill.
"Well, it chanced some days after that we snared this Kedagh O'Hagan in
our toils, and our general, who loves you heartily, gave him into my
hands and bade him bring me to his lair, charging me to hang him in his
own courtyard if you had been diminished by the paring of a nail. Last
night, as we rode over yond hills, we saw a great way off two red fires
descend as from the sky, and kindle their image in a space of water
beneath. The sight put O'Hagan into a fret and fume, he declaring the
lights portended some menace to his castle. We made all the speed we
could, but what with the rough pathless hills and the villainous reechy
fens, we had to go so far about that 'twas morning ere we came to the
place. And as we issued forth of the wood yonder we saw the roof filled
with women, of whom one at sight of us waved a handkercher as if to say
'Haste! haste!' Coming to the water's edge, and finding no craft to
ferry us across, we swam our horses, and some of us mounted the wall by
ladders we saw hooked there for our conveniency, and so fell upon the
pack of howling Irishmen in the courtyard and about the door. And when
we had done our work, and the old man rushed panting up the stairs,
raging for his daughter, he found her here with your head in her lap,
dropping salt tears of happiness."
I pressed his hand and thanked him for the service he had done me.
"Well, lad, well, 'tis nought," said he. "Come now, your tale. I must
hear about this pickle you fell into, and all the process of your
adventures."
I told him how I had been embogged, and brought hither to the castle,
and how I had borne my part in defending it against the desperadoes; but
I said no whit of my escape by diving, nor of my return. When I came to
the end of my brief relation, Toby regarded me very whimsically.
"So, so, my Chris," he said, "you deem your old friend Toby to be
unworthy of your confidence. Why, man, I knew all that, and a great deal
more; for I took the pains, when the damsel had related all to her
father in a torrent of Irishry--the which methinks hath its melodies--I
took the pains, I say, to persuade her to rehearse the same in English,
which she did with a pretty smack of her tongue that pleased me
mightily. She showed me the window whence you made your monstrous dive,
waxed eloquent upon your chivalry in coming back to defend her, called
you her noble captain, and, in short, so worked upon my inflammable
heart that it pricked and stung with jealousy, and I wished I had been
in your room."
Hereupon our converse was broken off by the entrance of the maiden
herself, leading by the hand a tall old man of a majestical and warlike
presence. She brought him to my bedside, and spoke softly for his ear
alone; and he thanked me with a noble grace and courtesy, and offered me
the hospitality of his castle until my wound should be thoroughly
healed.
When they had departed, Toby Caulfeild heaved a windy sigh.
"Good lack, I envy thee, Chris!" he said. "Never a maiden looked on me
with such adorable eyes."
"I did not mark her eyes," said I.