"
"As to the planks not being long enough, Master Guy, they could get over
that easy enough. They would only have to send three or four swimmers
across the moat, then thrust long beams over for those who had crossed to
fix firmly, and then lay short planks across them."
"So they would, Tom; I did not think of that. Well, at any rate, I expect
they will manage to get across the moat somehow and plant ladders against
the wall."
"And we shall chuck them down again," Tom said.
"They won't care much for that. But as long as they cannot knock a breach
in the walls I warrant that we can hold them."
CHAPTER IV
A FATAL ACCIDENT
As soon as the sun had set, the defenders gathered on the walls. Fires had
already been lighted there and cauldrons of water and pitch suspended over
them, and sacks of quicklime placed in readiness to be emptied; great
piles of stone were placed at short intervals.
"As long as they attack at only one or two places," Sir Eustace said to
his wife, "I am quite confident that we shall repulse them. If they attack
at a dozen they may succeed, as we should only have a couple of archers
and six or seven men-at-arms at each point, besides a score or so of the
vassals. I have no doubt that these will fight stoutly, for the sight of
their burning homes has roused them, and each man is longing to get a blow
at those who have wrought them so much damage. Still, thirty men are but a
small party to beat back an assault by hundreds.
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