The Book of Life by Kathy Lee

Author:Kathy Lee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scripture Union England and Wales
Published: 2011-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

13 Through the gates

The castle stood on a hill, with a river looping around it. We split into two groups to cross two separate bridges. The two groups were to meet at the main gate of the castle. Greg had told Andrew that in daylight hours the gates would probably be open, although there would be soldiers on guard.

The weather was still helping us – or not so much the weather as the smoky atmosphere. It was a man-made fog hanging over the city. The castle towers were shrouded in it. As we crossed the bridge, it covered us like a cloak.

On the other side we broke into a run, charging up a cobbled street between houses. It opened out suddenly into a wide square, with the castle looming up on one side. And the gates were open! With a wild yell we raced towards them.

It took the guards a moment to realise what was happening. Then one sounded a horn – a signal of danger – and the others started trying to close the heavy gates.

Too late... Our foremost men pressed into the gateway like a herd of stampeding cattle. They pushed the gates back, crushing the defenders against the wall.

Gunfire sounded from the castle walls. The man in front of me cried out and fell. I couldn’t stop to help him. The crowd behind was pushing me on through the gateway.

We came out into a broad courtyard. Opposite us was another arched gateway. The guards here were better prepared, warned by the signal. Already a huge portcullis gate was dropping down to close the gap.

“Quick! Follow me!” Andrew yelled.

He would have tried to dive beneath the gate, but Barrowby grabbed his arm and held him back. The gate dropped down with an earth-shaking thud.

“Don’t get carried away, lad,” said Barrowby. “You can’t defeat Sir John single-handed. Safety in numbers, remember?”

Despite the guns firing from the inner battlements, our men took possession of the outer gatehouse and courtyard. On Barrowby’s advice, they closed the gate. He was afraid of more surprise attacks from outside.

“Now what?” he said to Andrew. “Do we build a battering-ram, or sit here and starve Sir John out?”

“I don’t know,” said Andrew. “Why don’t we see what Sir John has to say?”

We were still by the inner portcullis. This was the safest place to be, close to the wall where the soldiers above couldn’t shoot at us. Andrew hammered on the gatepost.

“We demand to speak to Sir John of Durham!” he shouted.

“He’s not here,” someone shouted back.

Andrew and Barrowby looked at each other, taken aback. Andrew said, “We’ll talk to your commanding officer, then. Ask him to come to the gate.”

The officer arrived very quickly. He stood inside the bars of the gate, with Andrew on the outside. It was a dangerous situation for both of them. A spear from our side or a bullet from the other side would have ended the discussion at once.

The officer said that Sir John had ridden out that morning to inspect the harbour defences.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.