Page:Tudor Jenks--The defense of the castle.djvu/324

296 them into the passage-way by which they had entered—a narrow corridor leading to the western door of the keep. Here the pursuit ceased, for the Count and his men fought fiercely, and could not be driven further. Beside the Count, Edgar could see Luke the Lurdane, armed with an ax taken from a fallen soldier, and he suspected that Luke had admitted the Count to the castle.

Edgar's belief was right.

Luke after he had been captured was placed for security in one of the vaults below the keep, a sentinel being placed at the door, and, from the sentinel's story afterward, Edgar learned that Luke had feigned to commit suicide by strangling himself with a strip torn from his clothing. Naturally enough the sentinel had thrown open the door, and gone to the prisoner, whereupon Luke, springing suddenly to his feet, had tripped up the guard, stunned him with the butt of his own spear, and then bound and gagged him. Luke then had made his way slyly up into the keep, and creeping upon the guard at the gate had run him through before the poor fellow came to his senses.

Then cautiously opening the door, Luke had sped away over the rampart, and had brought the Count to the open door with all the soldiers who happened to be within the tower with the Count, Though these were but a small part of the be-