"Yes--an attack," growled De Brin, grinding his teeth with fury. "So much the worse for the attackers. Come--to horse, De Maupas; we have tarried with this obstinate girl too long already;" and with a dark look at Beatrice, De Brin hurried from the room, followed closely by his companion. The moment they were gone Beatrice rushed to the window and peered eagerly out. The trampling of steeds on the flagstones of the courtyard, the winding of horns, and the shouting and cheering of the men-at-arms indicated that the garrison were about to issue forth in force. Clearly something had occurred to alarm the inmates of the castle seriously. What could it be? Think as she would, Beatrice could find no satisfactory answer. *CHAPTER XIX* *The Assault* "The dam is down!" cried Father Armand excitedly, rejoining Edgar in the woods opposite the castle gateway as the latter was superintending the construction of two great mangonels. "The dam is down and the water is rushing away like a mill sluice." "’Tis well," replied Edgar; "in an hour or so the moat will be half-empty, and we can begin to make ready for the first assault." "So soon?" enquired the priest in surprise. "Yes, good Father. I am on fire with impatience. While the lady Beatrice d’Alençon is held in yon fortalice how can I be aught else? Think not that I shall endanger our cause by my hastiness. The garrison hath had a rude shock this day, and if we can deliver another before they have had time to recover, the advantage is all on our side." "Say on, then, Sir Squire. Thy counsel hath been good hitherto, and I am most ready to listen. What is next to be done?" "Set all the men but those at the mangonels to work cutting great bundles of undergrowth. Let the women and children also help, and let the faggots be cut at some little distance, so that the thickness of the woods here, which is our protection against a sortie, be not destroyed. The bundles of undergrowth we must use to fill up the moat and give us a foothold for the assault upon the gates and walls." "Yes, yes; I thought that would be the next move." "Then I want thee to strip a wagon of its strongest pair of wheels. Leave them on the axle. Then fell a tall young tree, with trunk about the thickness of a man’s thigh. Lop off all its branches and cap the end with iron. Then lay it across the axle and lash it there. Running easily on its wheels, and thrust by a score of men, the tree will make a battering-ram that will, I promise thee, reduce the drawbridge and gates of Castle Ruthènes to splinters within the space of a few minutes." "Ha! but will not the wheels of thy ram sink into the filled-in moat and there stick fast?"