The roar of one of the guns from the middle of the court drowned his words, and there was another roar, but the effect was little. The guns were discharged point-blank at the storming party climbing on the ruins; but they were scattered like skirmishers, and the gun-fire did not check them in the least. To Roy it only seemed that they dashed in more furiously, swarming, by the light of the blazing ruins, like bees; and before the guns could be reloaded, the Cavaliers were upon the defenders of the place, and a desperate hand-to-hand fight commenced. Roy turned excitedly to his mother. "Stop here; keep the women with you, and don't go near the window; there may be firing;" and, even as he spoke, shots began to ring out. "Stop! Where are you going?" cried Lady Royland, clinging to him. "To release our men, and help my father," said Roy. Lady Royland's hands fell to her sides, and the boy darted out of the room and along the corridor, full of the idea that had flashed into his brain. Away to the end he ran unchallenged, turned to the right, and without meeting a soul, reached the north-east tower, listening to the shouting and clashing of swords in the court as the desperate fight went on, his way lit by the glare from the flames in spite of the dense, heavy smoke and the choking fumes of exploded gunpowder which rolled along the passage. With his heart beating wildly for fear he should be too late, Roy dashed down the spiral staircase to the basement, and the next minute he reached the door of the lower hall, which formed the men's prison-chamber. The sentries were gone, and he thrust back the bolts and turned the ponderous key. "Ben! Corporal! Donny! All of you--quick!" "Ay, ay, sir. You're only just in time, for we're most smothered. What does it all mean?" "Don't talk! Follow me--guard-room. Enemy all in the court." He led the way back, the men literally staggering after him, half suffocated as they had been by the fumes of the powder, the explosion having been so near their prison. But they revived moment by moment in the pure air, and growing excited by the sounds that reached them from the court-yard, they followed on along the lower passages till they reached the crypt of the south-west tower, passed on to the stairway at the base of the gate tower, and ascended unchallenged to the great gate-way, where Roy dashed into the untenanted guard-room, and the men rapidly armed themselves with weapons from the racks. "Ready?" said Roy, in a whisper. "Yes," came in a deep, excited growl. "Back, then," cried Roy, "and we'll attack them in the rear."