ts, and two hundred musketeers made a gallant
sortie upon them; but Hepburn led on his pikemen who were nearest at
hand, and, without firing a shot, drove them back again into the
fort. At daybreak the roar of cannon on the opposite side of the river
commenced, and showed that the king with the divisions which had crossed
had arrived at their posts. The governor of the fort, seeing that if,
as was certain, the lower town were captured by the Swedes, he should be
cut off from all communication with the castle and completely isolated,
surrendered to Sir John Hepburn.

The town had, indeed, at once opened its gates, and two hundred men of
Sir James Ramsay's regiment were placed there. Hepburn prepared to cross
the river with the Blue and Green Brigades to aid the king in reducing
the castle--a place of vast size and strength--whose garrison composed
of Spaniards and Italians were replying to the fire of Gustavus. A boat
was lying at the gate of the fort.

"Captain Graheme," Hepburn said to Malcolm, "take with you two
lieutenants and twenty men in the boat and cross the river; then send
word by an officer to the king that the fort here has surrendered, and
that I am about to cross, and let the men bring over that flotilla of
boats which is lying under the town wall."

Malcolm crossed at once. After despatching the message to the king and
sending the officer back with the boats he had for the moment nothing
to do, and made his way into the town to inquire from the officers of
Ramsay's detachment how things were going. He found the men drawn up.

"Ah! Malcolm Graheme," the major in command said, "you have arrived in
the very nick of time to take part in a gallant enterprise."

"I am ready," Malcolm said; "what is to be done?"

"We are going to take the castle, that is all," the major said.

"You are joking," Malcolm laughed, looking at the great castle and the
little band of two hundred men.

"That am I not," the major answered; "my men have just discovered a
private passage from the governor's quarters here up to the very gate
of the outer wall. As you see we have collected some ladders, and as we
shall take them by surprise, while they are occupied with the king, we
shall give a good account of them."

"I will go with you right willingly," Malcolm said; but he could not but
feel that the enterprise was a desperate one, and wished that the major
had waited until a few hundred more men had crossed. Placing himself
b