Page:Tudor Jenks--The defense of the castle.djvu/92

68 all that could be learned from the first day's fight.

"The Count must be but a sorry warrior," Hugh remarked, "to think that he could take this place by a storm and an escalade. And leaving us there before the barbican to strike down his men as they went by in ranks seems too stupid for a belted knight."

Edgar admitted this, but asserted that all this might be but the impatience of a hot-headed leader.

"The Count did not expect us to fight with great skill," said he. "And, indeed, were it not for you, Hugh, he might have succeeded. The defense of the barbican was not only your doing, but your planning."

"It was naught," Hugh replied modestly. "Any soldier of two campaigns might do as much. You have seen little or no fighting, and you overpraise me for but the every-day matters of defense. Let us think of the morrow. What, if you were the attacking party, would you do, young lord?"

"Do?" Edgar repeated. "I should be a dunce if I had not learned my lesson to-day. If I were the Count I should destroy your palisade as best and quickest I could. One could send axmen against it, and though a few would be lost, they would be men well spent."