The men drew deep breaths of relief, and then grew nervous, for there was a short command or two given, a couple of the troopers stepped to their head, Ben and the corporal came up behind, and the little group of sturdy fellows was marched across into the guard-room, and afterwards into the armoury, to stand gaping at the weapons of war. "Did I do that right?" said Roy, afterwards. "Right, sir. The very thing. Those sort judge by what they see. They came to us half ready to laugh, but they soon saw how serious it all was; and they'll go away back to the mill to-night, and I'll be bound to say, Master Roy, if you followed 'em, you'd find they'd got a dozen other fellows about 'em, talking to 'em and boasting and bragging about how grand everything is, and showing 'em their uniforms and steel caps. This has about done it. You'll see we shall get as many men as we want now." "But I felt all the time as if I were acting," said Roy. "What? Look here, Master Roy, don't you go and say such a thing as that again. You weren't acting, and so I tell you; only doing your duty to your king and country, and your father and mother into the bargain. You can't do fighting without a bit of show along with it to brighten it up. You ask a man whether he'd like to wear a feather in his cap, and a bit o' scarlet and gold on his back, he'll laugh at you and say that such things are only for women. But don't you believe him, my lad; he won't own it, but he likes it all the same." Ben was right. For the next week men from the village and the surrounding farms came up to the castle looking very serious and important, to be enrolled for its defence; and at the end of a fortnight there were fifty defenders, of whom fully forty looked as if they could be depended upon, while the rest would serve to make a show. Meanwhile, Farmer Raynes attended the drilling and gun practice every morning with his men, the whole gathering rapidly picking up the rudiments of the military art under their four good teachers; while at noon all, save about a fourth, went back to their peaceful vocations, but ready at the arranged-for signal of two guns fired from the castle to hurry back, every man to his post, to stay in garrison continuously, instead of doing so one day in four. Farmer Raynes devoted the rest of his time to going round and gathering stores,--provender and forage of every kind that would be necessary,-- and his wagons seemed to be always coming or going across the drawbridge; while vaults and chambers in the castle which had remained unused for generations were now packed as store-rooms and granaries. "Never mind the farm, Master Roy," said the bluff fellow, one day; "it isn't quite going backward." "But the crops?" said Master Pawson, anxiously, for he was present. "Well, Master Pawson, they won't be so good as they should be, of course, but they'll grow whether I'm there or no, and Sir Granby won't mind. He's a rich gentleman with a beautiful estate."