“It is my right to answer Merlin. Merlin—you lean cur out of hell, hear me. I bide here, if it be for death; nor shall death be your gift to me.” He did not answer immediately. “Good, so be it. But before dawn I will ask you the same question. Think well of death, Isoult. Look in his cold eyes, and think of the worms and the clay.” The torch on the floor spluttered and went out, and the great hall sank into sudden darkness, for the closed shutters kept out the moonlight. Fulk knew that Isoult was very close to him. “Heart of mine, we will face it out together.” “They shall not have thee, Isoult, I swear it. Now that the lights are out we may have these heroes crawling up to take us unawares.” “There are two oak hutches in the solar. We can pile them one on the other, at the top of the stairs.” “Well thought of.” “Hallo, our last torch in there is out.” They had to grope their way into the solar, feel for the oak chests, and carry them out into the gallery. They set one upon the other, jamming them slantwise across the entry at the head of the stairs. Fulk went to the window of the solar, guided by chinks of light. It had a central mullion, and two shutters, and there was a drop of about fifteen feet to the ground. He opened one of the shutters noiselessly, and looked down over the window ledge. Something black showed below, three or four faggots laid across two casks that had been set on end. He heard two men whispering in this pent-house, where they were safe from arrows shot from above. Merlin had had this bolt-hole guarded, and Fulk closed the shutter and went back into the gallery, where Isoult kept watch behind the two oak chests. CHAPTER XXXVII They brought a settle out from the solar, and setting it against the wall, made ready for a night’s vigil. Since the last torch had gone out the place was in utter darkness save for one patch of moonlight at the far end of the hall. Fulk pulled off his right gauntlet, and felt for Isoult’s hand. “Try to sleep. Why should two keep watch?” “Then it is you who should sleep.” “By my love, do you think that I could sleep to-night? There will be some devil’s work to be baffled.” They sat close together like two children, listening for any sound, for the night had grown strangely silent, and silence told them nothing, save that there was danger near. An hour passed before Fulk and Isoult heard a sound of stirring in the darkness. Voices spoke in undertones, and there was the crackling of brittle wood. There was movement down yonder in the hall, a kind of groping movement that came nearer and nearer. Fulk stood ready behind the barricade made of chests, thinking that Merlin’s men were crawling up the stairway, but it was a subtler attack that they were preparing.