Page:Tudor Jenks--The defense of the castle.djvu/293

265 and in a very short time, the great beam was knocking for admittance against the door. Below this portion of the rampart was the Friar's second mine, and he himself stood within the tower ready to give the signal for firing it. But first he made sure that all the defenders in the tower should be warned to take flight as soon as the whistle sounded. The Friar, however, had reasoned that the whistle would give warning to the besiegers as well, and he argued that they would be afraid of another explosion. Therefore he had instructed the soldier who stood by the fuse not to light it until he should receive verbal orders.

As soon as the ram was fairly at work, the Friar blew his whistle. Thereupon the archers and men-at-arms within the castle all left their posts, and retired along the northern rampart to the keep, crossing the wooden bridge, and closing the door into the keep behind them. They knew, of course, that the Friar and the soldier at the fuse still remained in the tower, but in order to give time for thoroughly barricading the door, it was arranged that these last two men should be drawn up by ropes when they arrived at the keep's door.

The sound of the whistle, the same sound that had preceded the other explosion, seemed to petrify the besiegers. They came to a halt, dropped the