eeps, but Roland saw at once that they were too close to the ledge of
rock for any chance of escape. He hurried down into the cabin.

"Every man his sword, and follow me as silently as possible!"

Up on deck again, Roland said to the captain:

"Let your rowers help the chain to bring the barge alongside, but when
the robbers appear, pretend to be getting away, although you must
instantly obey them when ordered to cease your efforts."

The prow of the boat ground against the solid rock, jammed in between
the stout chain and the low cliff. Roland was the first to spring
ashore, and the rest nimbly followed him. With every motion of the barge
the bell inside the Castle rang, and now they could hear the bestirring
of the garrison, and clashing of metal, although the single door of the
Pfalz had not yet been opened. This door stood six feet above the
plateau of rock, and could be entered or quitted only by means of a
ladder.

Roland led his men to a place of effective concealment along the western
wall of the Pfalz, only just in time, for as he peered round the corner,
his men standing back against the wall to the rear, he saw the flash of
torches from the now-open door, and the placing of a stout ladder at a
steep angle between the threshold and the floor of rock below. Most of
the garrison, however, did not wait for this convenience, but leaped
impetuously from doorway to rock. Others slid down the ladder, and all
rushed headlong towards the barge, which made its presence known by the
grinding of its side against the rock, and also by the despairing orders
of the captain, and the hurrying footsteps of his men on deck.

More leisurely down the ladder came two officers, followed by one whom
Roland recognized as lord of the Castle, Pfalzgraf Hermann von Stahleck,
a namesake and relative of the Laughing Baron of Furstenberg, and quite
as ruthless a robber as he.

"Cease your efforts at the prow," shouted the Pfalzgraf to the captain
when he had descended the ladder, "and concentrate your force at the
stern, swinging your boat round broadside on to the landing."

The captain obeyed, and presently the boat lay in such position as the
nobleman desired. Now there was a great commotion as, at a word from the
Pfalzgraf, the garrison fell on the barge, and began to wrench off the
hatches, a task which they well knew how to perform.

"Follow as quietly as possible," whispered Roland to the two lieutenants
behind him, who, und