Foreseeing the possibility of an attack from the castle, the
Austrians placed a hundred men at the foot of the road leading up
to it, and laid their three cannon loaded to the muzzle to command
it.
"Have you not," Malcolm asked the count, "some means of exit from
the castle besides the way into the town?"
"Yes," the count said, "there is a footpath down the rock on the
other side."
"Then," Malcolm said, "as soon as they are fairly drunk, which
will be before midnight, let us fall upon them from the other side.
Leave fifty of your oldest men with half a dozen veteran soldiers
to defend the gateway against a sudden attack; with the rest we
can issue out, and marching round, enter by the gate and breaches,
sweeping the streets as we go, and then uniting, burst through any
guard they may have placed to prevent a sortie, and so regain the
castle."
The count at once assented. In a short time shouts, songs, the
sound of rioting and quarrels, arose from the town, showing that
revelry was general. At eleven o'clock the men in the castle were
mustered, fifty were told off to the defence with five experienced
soldiers, an officer of the count being left in command. The
rest sallied through a little door at the back of the castle and
noiselessly descended the steep path. On arriving at the bottom they
were divided into three bodies. Malcolm with his Scots and fifty
of the townspeople formed one.
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