‘Whether the stables be under the pavement or over the leads,’ he returned at last, ’there are not a few in them as good as she—­of which I hope to satisfy my Lady some day,’ he added, patting the mare’s neck.

‘Wert thou not hurt already, I would pitch thee out of the saddle,’ said Richard.

‘Were I not hurt in the knee, thou couldst not,’ said Scudamore.

’I need not lay hand upon thee.  Wert thou as sound in limb as thou art in wind, thou wouldst feel thyself on the road ere thou knewest thou hadst taken leave of the saddle—­did I but give the mare the sign she knows.’

‘By God’s grace,’ said the cavalier, ’she shall be mine, and teach me the trick of it.’

Richard answered only with a grim laugh, and again, but more gently this time, quickened the mare’s pace.  Little more had passed between them when the six-sided towers of Raglan rose on their view.

Richard had, from childhood, been familiar with their aspect, especially that of the huge one called the Yellow Tower, but he had never yet been within the walls that encircled them.  At any time during his life, almost up to the present hour, he might have entered without question, for the gates were seldom closed and never locked, the portcullises, sheathed in the wall above, hung moveless in their rusty chains, and the drawbridges spanned the moat from scarp to counterscarp, as if from the first their beams had rested there in solid masonry.  And still, during the day, there was little sign of change, beyond an indefinable presence of busier life, even in the hush of the hot autumnal noon.  But at night the drawbridges rose and the portcullises descended—­each with its own peculiar creak, and jar, and scrape, setting the young rooks cawing in reply from every pinnacle and tree-top—­never later than the last moment when the warder could see anything larger than a cat on the brow of the road this side the village.  For who could tell when, or with what force at their command, the parliament might claim possession?  And now another of the frequent reports had arrived, that the king had at length resorted to arms.  It was altogether necessary for such as occupied a stronghold, unless willing to yield it to the first who demanded entrance, to keep watch and ward.

Admitted at the great brick gate, the outermost of all, and turning aside from the steps leading up to the white stone gate and main entrance beyond, with its drawbridge and double portcullis, Richard, by his companion’s directions, led his mare to the left, and, rounding the moat of the citadel, sought the western gate of the castle, which seemed to shelter itself under the great bulk of the Yellow Tower, the cannon upon more than one of whose bastions closely commanded it, and made up for its inferiority in defence of its own.

Scudamore had scarcely called, ere the warder, who had been waked by the sound of the horse’s feet, began to set the machinery of the portcullis in motion.