ed up to him.

"Welcome back, Sir Archie; glad am I to give up the responsibility
of this post, although, indeed, it is not I who have been in command,
but Lady Marjory. She has been always on the walls, cheering the
men with her words and urging them to deeds of bravery; and, indeed,
she has frightened me sorely by the way in which she exposed herself
where the arrows were flying most thickly, for as I told her over
and over again, if the castle were taken I knew that you would be
sure that I had done my best, but what excuse should I be able to
make to you if I had to bear you the news that she had been killed?"

"And what did she say to that, Sandy?"

"Truth, Sir Archie, she's a woman and wilful, and she just laughed
and said that you would know you could not keep her in order
yourself, and could not therefore expect me to rule her."

"That is so, Sandy," Archie laughed; "but now that I am back I
will for once exert my authority, and will see that she runs into
no further danger. And now, how goes the siege?"

"So far they have done but little damage, Sir Archie; but the
machines which they brought up yesterday will, I fear, play havock
with our walls. They have not yet begun their work, for when they
brought them up yesterday afternoon our men shot so hotly that they
had to fall back again; but in the night they have thrown up high
banks of earth, and have planted the engines under their shelter,
and will, ere long, begin to send their messengers against our
walls. Thrice they assaulted the works beyond the drawbridge and
twice we beat them back; but last night they came on with all their
force. I was myself there, and after fighting for a while and seeing
they were too strong for us, I thought it best to withdraw before
they gained footing in the work, and so had time to draw off the
men and raise the drawbridge."

"Quite right, Sandy! The defenders of the post would only have
been slaughtered, and the assailants might have rushed across the
drawbridge before it could have been raised. The post is of little
importance save to defend the castle against a sudden surprise, and
would only have been a source of constant anxiety and loss. How
many do you reckon them? Judging by their tents there must be
three or four thousand."

"About three thousand, Sir Archie, I make it; and as we had no time
to get the tenants in from my lady's Ayrshire estate, we have but
two hundred men in the castle, and many of these