mmand, so that I obeyed him without question,
even as had the villagers. And even as I went there came the sound
of many rushing feet up the street, and yells from Danish throats,
while axe blows began to rain on the gate by which I had entered.

Then the prior bade me hold the gate when he heard that, and he
spoke quietly and in no terror, turning and calling to the man in
the tower himself; while I stood opposite the gate, looking to see
it fall with every blow. Yet it was not so weakly made as that, and
moreover I remembered that it was crossed with iron bands in
squares so that the axes could not bite it fairly.

Now the bell stopped and the Danes howled the louder. A torch flew
over the wall and fell at my feet blazing, and I hurled it back,
and the Danes laughed at one whom it struck. Then came the two
monks from the tower and ran into the church, while I watched the
trembling of the sorely-tried gate, and had it fallen I should
surely have smitten the first Dane who entered, even had Halfden
himself been foremost, for in the four walls of that holy place I
was trapped, and knew that I must fight at last. And now it seemed
to me that I was to fight for our faith and our land; and for those
sacred things, if I might do naught in dying, I would give my life
gladly.

"Come," said the prior's voice, and he was smiling though his face
was pale, while behind him the sacristan bore an oaken chest, iron
bound, on his shoulders.

He drew me across the courtyard, but I ever looked back at the
gate, thinking it would fall; and now they were at the other gate,
and blows rained on it. Yet the monk smiled again and went on
without faltering, though our way was towards it.

Then we turned under an arch into a second court, and the din was
less plain as we did so. There was the well of the monastery, and
without a word the sacristan hove the heavy chest from his
shoulders into its black depths, and the splash and bubble of its
falling came up to us.

"That is safe," said the prior; "now for ourselves."

He hooked the oaken bucket to its rope and let it down to its full
length in the well, and at once the sacristan swung himself on it,
slid down, and was gone. Then the rope swayed to one side, and
stayed there, shaking gently in a minute or so.

The prior drew it up, and maybe fifteen feet from the top, there
was a bundle tied--a rope ladder on which were iron hooks. These he
fastened to the edge of the oaken platform t