Shortly the woodwork caught, and the whole gate presently yielded
to the action of the fire; the iron bars, loosened by the destruction of
the woodwork, gave way, and the besiegers rushed into the quadrangle.
Here, all was dark and silent, not a sound to be heard or a light seen.
"What can it mean? Have they fled? You all heard the laughter!"
"There it is again."
The boisterous and untimely mirth had begun just within the abbot's
lodgings, and the doorway at the foot was immediately attacked. It
presently yielded, and Redwald, who had obtained a good notion of the
place, rushed with his chief villains to the chamber he knew to be
Dunstan's; yet he began to fear failure, for the absence of all the
inmates was disheartening. No, not all, for there was the loud laughter
within the very chamber of the abbot.
The door was fastened securely, and while the axes were doing their
destructive work upon it, the mocking laughter was again heard. Redwald
had become so enraged that he mentally vowed the direst vengeance upon
the untimely jester, when the door burst open and he rushed in.
"Where is he? Surely there was some one here?"
"Who could it be? We all heard the laughter."
But victim there was none; and searching all the place in vain, they had
to satiate their vengeance by destroying the humble furniture of the abbot.
What to do next they knew not, and Redwald, deeply mystified, was
reluctantly forced to own his discomfiture, and to prepare to pass the
night in the abbey.
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