gainst our force?"

De Brissac had guessed pretty accurately the number of fighting men
that could be mustered among the tenants of the countess. The
training that they had undergone had, however, made them more
formidable opponents than he supposed; and each man was animated by
hatred of their persecutors, and a stern determination to fight
until the last, in defence of their lives and freedom of worship.
They had been mustered at the first dawn of day in the courtyard,
their arms inspected, and all deficiencies made up from the
armoury.

Fifty men were placed under Philip's orders, for the defence of
that portion of the house that rose directly from the edge of the
moat. The lower windows were small and strongly barred, and there
was little fear of an entrance being forced. The postern gate here
had, during the night, been strengthened with stones; and articles
of heavy furniture piled against it. A few men were placed at the
lower windows; the main body on the first floor, where the
casements were large; and the rest distributed at the upper
windows, to vex the enemy by their fire, as they approached.

Philip appointed Eustace to take the command of the men at the
lower windows; and Roger of those on the upper floor; he, with
Jacques, posting himself on the first floor, against which the
enemy would attempt to fix their ladders. Great fires were lighted
in all the rooms, and cauldrons of water placed over them; and boys
with pails stood by these, in readiness to bring boiling water to
the windows, when required.

The walls round the courtyard and garden were not of sufficient
thickness for fires to be lighted, along the narrow path on which
the defenders were posted; but fires were lighted in the courtyard,
and boiling water prepared there, in readiness to carry up when the
assault began. The Huguenot gentlemen were placed in command, at
the various points along the wall most likely to be assailed.

Had the besiegers been provided with cannon, the defence could not
have lasted long, for the walls would not have resisted battering
by shot; but cannon, in those times, were rare, and were too clumsy
and heavy to accompany an expedition requiring to move with speed.
For a time, the men-at-arms alone garrisoned the wall; the farmers
and their men being occupied in pumping water from the wells and
carrying it to the cattle, of which some eight hundred had been
driven in. The granaries were opened, and a plentiful su