And that the riff-raff about our own gates should have part in
the insult.
Bezers' wrath would be little abated by the issue of the affair,
or the justice I had done on one of his men. So we looked well
to bolts, and bars, and windows, although the castle is well-nigh
impregnable, the smooth rock falling twenty feet at least on
every side from the base of the walls. The gatehouse, Pavannes
had shown us, might be blown up with gunpowder indeed, but we
prepared to close the iron grating which barred the way half-way
up the ramp. This done, even if the enemy should succeed in
forcing an entrance he would only find himself caught in a trap--
in a steep, narrow way exposed to a fire from the top of the
flanking walls, as well as from the front. We had a couple of
culverins, which the Vicomte had got twenty years before, at the
time of the battle of St. Quentin. We fixed one of these at the
head of the ramp, and placed the other on the terrace, where by
moving it a few paces forward we could train it on Bezers' house,
which thus lay at our mercy.
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