efore agreed to give their aid, and promised to be at
the rendezvous outside the castle to be attacked, soon after dawn next
morning. Cuthbert returned with the news, which gave great satisfaction
to the earl.

The castle was now a scene of bustle and business; armourers were at work
repairing head-pieces and breastplates, sharpening swords and
battle-axes, while the fletchers prepared sheaves of arrows. In the
courtyard a number of men were engaged oiling the catapults, ballistas,
and other machines for hurling stones. All were discussing the chances of
the assault, for it was no easy matter which they had set themselves to
do. Wortham Hold was an extremely strong one, and it needed all and more
than all the machines at their disposal to undertake so formidable an
operation as a siege.

The garrison, too, were strong and desperate; and the baron, knowing what
must follow his outrage of the day before, would have been sure to send
off messengers round the country begging his friends to come to his
assistance. Cuthbert had begged permission of his mother to ask the earl
to allow him to join as a volunteer, but she would not hear of it.
Neither would she suffer him to mingle with the foresters. The utmost
that he could obtain was that he might go as a spectator, with strict
injunctions to keep himself out of the fray, and as far as possible
beyond bow-shot of the castle wall.

It was a force of some 400 strong that issued from the wood early next
morning to attack the stronghold at Wortham. The force consisted of some
ten or twelve knights and barons, some 150 or 160 Norman men-at-arms, a
miscellaneous gathering of other retainers, 200 strong, and some eighty
of the forest men. These last were not to fight under the earl's banner,
but were to act on their own account. There were among them outlaws,
escaped serfs, and some men guilty of bloodshed. The earl then could not
have suffered these men to fight under his flag until purged in some way
of their offences.

This arrangement suited the foresters well.

Their strong point was shooting; and by taking up their own position, and
following their own tactics, under the leadership of Cnut, they would be
able to do far more execution, and that with less risk to themselves,
than if compelled to fight according to the fashion of the Normans.

As they approached the castle a trumpet was blown, and the herald,
advancing, demanded its surrender, stigmatized the Baron of Worth