The lesson of the previous evening had evidently not been lost upon the peasants, for Malcolm saw a tall man who was acting as their leader wave his hand, and those who had brought the powder started to make a detour round the church.  Malcolm, finding that no movement was being made towards the front, and that at present he could do nothing from his loophole, ran up to the top of the tower and took his place by the soldier who was lying down on the roof and looking over the edge.

Presently the first of the peasants appeared round the corner of the main building, and dashed rapidly across to the angle of the tower.  Two heavy stones were dropped, but he had passed on long before they had reached the bottom.  Man after man followed, and Malcolm, seeing that he could do nothing to stop them, again ran down.  As he did so he heard a scream of agony.  The leading peasants had reached the doorway, but as they dashed in to place their barrels of powder they were run through and through by the spears of the pikemen.  They fell half in and half out of the doorway, and the barrels rolled some distance away.  Those behind them stopped panic stricken at their sudden fall.  Several of them dropped their barrels and fled, while others ran round the angle of the tower again, coming in violent contact with those following them; all then hurried round behind the church.  Malcolm stamped his feet with vexation.

“What a fool I am,” he muttered, “not to have thought of a sortie!  If we had all held ourselves in readiness to spring out, we might have cut down the whole of them; at any rate none would have got off with their barrels.”

This unexpected failure greatly damped the spirit of the peasants, and there was much consultation among them before any fresh move was made.  As he saw that they were fully occupied, and paying no heed to the tower, Malcolm said to his men: 

“I am going outside; prepare to help me up over the door again quickly if necessary.

Leaving his sword behind him, he took a leap from the step above the inclined plane and landed at the bottom, and at once threw himself down outside.  With his dagger he removed the hoops of one of the barrels, and scattered the contents thickly along the front of the tower.  None of the peasants perceived him, for there were many bodies lying round the foot of the tower; and even had any looked that way they would not have noticed that one prone figure had been added to the number.

Crawling cautiously along Malcolm pushed two other barrels before him, and opening them as before, spread the contents of one upon the ground near the side of the tower, and the other by the hinder face.  The thick black layer on the snow would have told its tale instantly to a soldier, but Malcolm had little fear of the peasants in their haste paying attention to it.  When his task was completed he crawled back again to the door and laid a train from the foot of the slide to the powder without.