No answer was returned.
"It's fortunate for you," Malcolm muttered, "that we don't come
out, or we should make short work of you; but I know you would fly
like hares if you saw us, and would bring the whole country down
on us. No; we must hold out here. Our only hope is to escape at
night, or to hold this place till some of our troops come along.
At any moment some regiments from the Lech may be marching forward
to join the king.
"We must make our bread last, lads," he said cheerfully to the men,
"for we may have to stand a long siege. Methinks we can hold this
stone staircase against all the peasants of this part of Bavaria;
and we must do so until we hear the sound of the Swedish drums;
they may come along at any time. If the worst comes to the worst
one of us must start at night and carry news of our peril to the
Lech. We made a good supper last night, and can fast for a bit. If
we cut our bread up into small portions we can hold out for days.
There should be snow enough on the tower top to furnish us with
drink."
After hammering at the door for some time, the peasants retired
convinced that there were none of their own people within the tower,
and that those who had slept there were the fugitives of whom they
had been in search during the night. These might, indeed, have
departed in the interval between the time when the woman first saw
the traces of their presence and her return with them; but they did
not think that this was so, for in that case they could not have
fastened the door behind them.
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