Page:Tudor Jenks--The defense of the castle.djvu/29

Rh the Crusader, while he, on the contrary, thought only of those whom he must leave in troublous times amid neighbors that were little better than armed robbers.

The country not far from them had been the field of many a battle and skirmish in the recent wars, and Francis Mortimer knew that there was little to be expected from the weak government of old King Henry.

The baron gave two whole days to a careful inspection of the castle and its immediate surroundings. In company with his son Edgar, and one old soldier, a veteran who had fought for years at the baron's side, he went from the highest turret to the lower vaults cut into the solid rock below. As he went, he pointed out the strength and weakness of every part of the castle, showing which towers were most important to the defense, where the strongest force could be used to most advantage, and where a weaker body of men could make good their position against even a superior force. For the first time, he confided to his son every secret of the stronghold—a hidden subterranean outlet that led to the bank of the river, fully a furlong down-stream; a well driven through the rock to the river level; a concealed staircase in the wall of the donjon, or strongest tower. He also opened the locked store-rooms, where were