Page:Tudor Jenks--The defense of the castle.djvu/122

98 Good-night, Hugh,—and remember, we have promised to keep the Friar's secret."

Hugh went to bed, after he had made a final round of the sentries to see that none were unwary, and one moment as he climbed to his turret-room he shook his head in grave doubt over the Friar's strange doings, while the next he recalled how skillfully the same good Friar had handled the mangonel, and was inclined to trust him.

With daylight the old soldier felt reassured, and made the rounds without a trace of the uneasiness he had shown the night before. He went first to one of the gateway towers, and saw that the besiegers had advanced their "cat" more than half across the moat, while they were still busily extending the causeway. By the next day, at furthest, they would be at the base of the wall. Then Hugh ascended to the top of one of the towers, and here he found Edgar looking out toward the wood. Hugh followed the direction of his gaze and saw groups of the Count's men busily engaged in hewing timbers, and soon made out by the few that had been put in place, that they were constructing two large mangonels—engines even larger than the one they had already employed. Further back, at the very edge of the wood, more men were at work felling trees and chopping them—as was known by the sharp strokes of