CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
THE WAY IN AND THE WAY OUT.
The sentries challenged Roy as he went along the corridors, and it madehis heart ache for this to take place in his own old home; but as he waspassed on directly, he drew himself up, went to the door, knocked, andthe general's deep hard voice cried, "Come in."
General Hepburn was seated at a table writing, but he threw down his penas he saw who it was, and smiled.
"What can I do for you, my restless prisoner?" he said.
"I want you to give me a pass for the sentries, so that I can go andexamine the passage through which you brought your men that night, sir."
"Why? What for?"
"Out of curiosity. Isn't it natural, sir, that after being here all mylife, and then tricked like that, I should want to know how it wasdone?"
"Yes," said the general, abruptly; and he took up his pen and wrotesomething upon a piece of paper, swept some pounce over it, shook it,and gave it to his petitioner. "You can go and see it."
"And take Sergeant Martlet with me, sir? He was my lieutenant andadviser."
The general snatched the paper back, wrote in a line, and once morehanded it.
"Yes," he said; "but I must be strict, boy. You will have a sergeant'sguard with you all the time."
"Of course," said Roy; "but I am not going to try and escape to-day."
"No," said the general, smiling, and taking up his pen again; "you arenot going to try and escape to-day."
As Roy went away, the guard was being changed, and the place rang withthe tramp of men, the officer on duty visiting the different posts andexamining everything in the keenest way.
"Ah, they're doing it right enough, Master Roy," said Ben; and the ladstarted, for he had not heard the old sergeant's approach. "Taking alesson?"
"I was watching them, Ben."
"Ah, and if they warn't enemies, and taken our place, I'd say thegeneral was a thorough good soldier, and knew what he was about."
"You do think that, then?" said Roy, who was glad to hear his own ideasendorsed.
"Course I do, sir. I growled and grumbled because I'm sore; but it doesone's heart good to see the fine discipline, and the way in which theywork our guns. He didn't seem very clever at managing his horse, but Is'pose he was right, for sorry am I to say it, he's made the castletwice as strong as it was, and only by having his men in such order."
"Yes; everything goes like clockwork, Ben," said Roy, sadly.
"Better, sir; clocks get out of order; garrison like this don't. A manor two may go wrong, but there is always more to take their places. Wedid our best, and was very proud of it, sir; but it's one thing to havethree trained soldiers for your garrison and to make it stronger out ofsuch men as you can get together, and another thing to march in as manyas you can make room for, and all well-drilled. There, it's of no useto grumble, sir; we did wonders.--So the general won't let you go andsee the fox's hole?"
"Yes, he will, Ben. I have the pass here to present to the officers onduty."
"Why didn't you say so before?" cried Ben, sharply. "Come along, then,sir. I wouldn't go and say anything to them yonder, because they mightfeel a bit jealous."
Roy nodded, and followed by the old sergeant he walked straight to theguard-room, presented his paper, feeling all the while how strange itwas to have to ask permission in his own old home. But he had no timefor thought. The officer promptly called out a sergeant, and selectedfour men, and with them for guard, Roy and Ben led across the court tothe entrance of the north-west tower.
Roy felt eager and yet depressed as they passed in, the sergeant leadingand going up the spiral stairs to Master Pawson's old room, which waspartly dismantled now, and the furniture left just sufficient to provideseats and a table for a dozen men who used it as a second guard-room.
"You don't know the way out and in by this passage, then, sir?" thesergeant said.
"No," replied Roy, who was examining the walls. "I have no idea whereit is. Surely it can't be here?"
"Take a look round, sir; perhaps you'll make it out."
Roy did look round--an easy thing to do in a round chamber--but thedoor, the one large cupboard, the locker in the window, and a broadoaken panel over the mantelpiece were examined and in vain. The lasttook his attention the most, looking as if it might be a low door-way,and sounding hollow; but he could make nothing of it, and he fell toexamining the wainscot in other parts and the floor boards.
"Better give it up, sir," said the sergeant, smiling. "I don't supposeany one would find it out unless it was by accident. Shall I show younow?"
"No," said Roy, who was on his mettle; and he examined the whole placeagain, beginning with the locker in the window, opening an oakenbox-like contrivance in which lay a few of the soldiers' cloaks forwhich there was no room on the nails and hooks lately driven into thewall.
But after a quarter of an hour's keen search, Roy gave it up.
"I am wasting time," he said.
"Yes, sir," said the sergeant; "but, as children say at play, you wereburning more than once."
Roy felt disposed to renew his quest, but he refrained, and the sergeantwent to the casement window, and as Roy watched him, opened it till itstood at a certain angle, which allowed him to thrust down a pin andsecure it--a simple enough thing to do, and apparently to keep the windfrom blowing it to and fro.
"That unlocks the trap-door, sir," said the man. "If you open it moreor less, it doesn't act. Look here."
He opened the lid of the locker, and turned a catch over it to keep itfrom shutting down again, then threw out the cloaks.
"Now pull up that end, sir."
Roy took hold of the panelled oaken side of the locker on his left, andto his astonishment the end of the coffer-like affair glided easily up,bringing with it one end of the oaken bottom; while the other end,turning upon a pivot on the middle, went down, laying open a squareshaft going at a slope apparently into the thickness of the wall.
Roy uttered an ejaculation of wonder, while the sergeant struck a light,lit a lantern, got feet first into the locker, and let himself slide;and they saw him descend a dozen feet at an easy slope, stand upright,and hold the light for them to follow and stand by him in a narrowpassage with an arched roof.
"Easy enough, when you know how," said the man.
"Ay, easy enough, when you know how," growled Ben, while Roy examined ashort, stout ladder hanging from a couple of hooks by the archedceiling.
"For going back?" he said.
"Yes, sir," was the reply, as the sergeant moved forward a few steps toallow his men to follow, which they did as if quite accustomed to thetask.
The narrow passage ended at the top of a spiral staircase just wideenough to allow a man to pass along, and down this he went with a light,the others following, till they had descended to a great depth.
"Hundred steps," growled Ben, as they stood now in a square crypt-likechamber, with a pointed archway in the centre of the wall at one end.
"There you are, sir," said the sergeant, holding up the lantern, "cutright through the stone. It's as dry as tinder, though it does gostraight under the moat. Isn't it strange that you didn't know ofthis?"
"Strange!" cried Ben, taking the answer out of his young master's lips;"why, I didn't know anything about it myself. I mean, where it was."
Roy was silent, for he was thinking of how easily the passage could havebeen blocked, or a few men have held it against a host.
"Want to go any farther, sir?" asked the sergeant.
"Farther? Yes!" cried Roy, excitedly. "I want to go right to the end."
"Long way, sir, and it's all alike. It comes out in the old ruinedplace at the top of that little hill."
"Yes, I suppose so," said Roy. "Lead on, please."
The sergeant went forward with the light, and Roy followed, whisperingto his companion as they went along.
"Oh, Ben, if we had only found it out!"
"Ay, sir. If we had only found
it out; but it wanted a man like MasterPawson."
"Why, Ben," cried Roy, who had a flash of inspiration; "he must havefound out about it in one of those old books from the library, one ofthose which tell about the building of the castle."
"Why, o' course, sir!" growled Ben; "and you, with all those books tolook at when you liked, and not find it out yourself."
"And I know the very book," cried Roy, "and have looked at the picturesin it scores of times. But, I remember now, I have not seen it sincethat wretch has been here."
They had to increase their pace, for the sergeant was striding alongover the fairly level floor, which had doubtless been lately cleared,for the lantern showed where portions of the arched roof had shaled off,though much of it was in almost the same condition as when it waslaboriously chipped away with the mason's hammers, whose marks wereplainly enough to be seen.
"Seen one bit, we've seen all, Master Roy," said Ben at last in adisgusted tone; "but it don't want a trained soldier to take a castle ifhe's got a way in, made ready for him like this."
But they proceeded, and went right to the end, which was carefullymasked in the ruin of the old chapel. But some time before they reachedthe other opening they were challenged, and Roy felt no surprise onfinding a strong body of horse bivouacked in the ancient ruin.
On the way back to the castle Roy gleaned a few facts from the sergeant,which only, however, endorsed those already gathered,--to wit, that theex-secretary had been holding communications with the enemy for sometime before they came to terms, visiting the camp again and again atnight, and eluding the vigilance of those who tried to follow him,dodging, as he always did, and then doubling back and reaching the ruinswhere they were not watched. It was not until General Hepburn hadrealised that it would be a very long and tedious task to reduce thecastle, and only to be achieved at the cost of much bloodshed, that he,after communication with headquarters, came to Pawson's terms, and thenthe result was immediate.
Roy's first step on returning was to seek Lady Royland and tell her ofhis visit, at the same time asking her opinion about the book, which sheremembered at once.
"Yes," she said, at last; "if ever we find that book again, we shallread the story of our ruin there."
The Young Castellan: A Tale of the English Civil War Page 32
