wbridge had been lifted at the
instant that the first of the assailants gained a footing upon the wall.
And now that the outwork was captured, a storm of arrows, stones, and
other missiles was poured into it from the castle walls, and rendered it
impossible for any of its new masters to show themselves above it.

Seeing that any sudden attack was impossible, the earl now directed a
strong body to cut down trees, and prepare a moveable bridge to throw
across the moat.

This would be a work of fully two days; and in the meantime Cuthbert
returned to the farm.

CHAPTER III.

THE CAPTURE OF WORTHAM HOLD.

Upon his return home, after relating to his mother the events of the
morning's conflict, Cuthbert took his way to the cottage inhabited by an
old man who had in his youth been a mason.

"Have I not heard, Gurth," he said, "that you helped to build the Castle
of Wortham?"

"No, no, young sir," he said; "old as I am, I was a child when the
castle was built. My father worked at it, and it cost him, and many
others, his life."

"And how was that, prithee?" asked Cuthbert.

"He was, with several others, killed by the baron, the grandfather of
the present man, when the work was finished."

"But why was that, Gurth?"

"We were but Saxon swine," said Gurth bitterly, "and a few of us more or
less mattered not. We were then serfs of the baron. But my mother fled
with me on the news of my father's death. For years we remained far away
with some friends in a forest near Oxford. Then she pined for her native
air, and came back and entered the service of the franklin."

"But why should your mother have taken you away?" Cuthbert asked.

"She always believed, Master Cuthbert, that my father was killed by the
baron to prevent him giving any news of the secrets of the castle. He
and some others had been kept in the walls for many months, and were
engaged in the making of secret passages."

"That is just what I came to ask you, Gurth. I have heard something of
this story before, and now that we are attacking Wortham Castle, and the
earl has sworn to level it to the ground, it is of importance if
possible to find out whether any of the secret passages lead beyond the
castle, and if so, where. Almost all the castles have, I have been told,
an exit by which the garrison can at will make sorties or escape; and I
thought that maybe you might have heard enough to give us some clue as
to the existence of such a passage at