been foreseen. The captain next tried to seize the chain, but his fingers barely reached the staple which held it to the wall. Baffled and enraged, he pulled furiously at one of the blocks of stone which formed the coping; and Charles, who could just distinguish the action, must have suffered the agonies of death at the thought that it was intended to dash it down upon his head. He still, however, clung desperately to the chain, knowing that he would become a mere mass of mangled flesh if he loosed his hold, and believing that if he accepted the help of his enemies to return to the platform he would perish beneath the blows of their daggers. All that I have described as following his discovery had only occupied the shortest possible space of time. At the first moment terror and surprise deprived him of the use of his voice, if not of his reason; but the action of Captain Whitehead seemed to give him vigour to cry out. His cries, however, uttered in the open air, at such a height, and outside the walls of the castle, were unheard by the garrison.
It was while these things were being enacted on the top of the castle, that a soldier of the garrison who had been visiting his friends was returning towards it. The greater part of the road which now runs from St. Martin’s down to the beach yonder, south of the castle, was in existence then; but the shortest way, and that usually taken by persons coming to the castle in the daytime, was reputed to be haunted, and it was very seldom indeed that anybody came that way after nightfall. It so happened that this soldier was an Englishman, named Cooper, a native of Amesbury in Wiltshire; and it was perhaps from his familiarity with the grand Druidic ruins of Stonehenge that he felt a kind of contempt for the ghosts which could dwell in the insignificant ruins, attributed to that priesthood, which the natives of Jersey avoided with so much awe. At any rate, instead of taking the broader road he took the path which skirted these ruins, and while passing along, and occasionally throwing a side-glance at them, he saw a red light burning on one of the rocks furthest from the shore. He stopped to look at it, wondering what it could mean. It was not a fire—its vivid colour and the steadiness with which it burned showed that. He went on a few steps and it was hidden; then he came back and it was still there. He again changed his position; and though the red light was invisible, his eye was drawn to three ordinary lights shining one above the other, which, from the manner in which they rose and fell, he saw immediately were on board a vessel. If he had seen the latter alone, he would have thought nothing of it, because it was a common thing for the fishing-vessels when they lay off the coast all night to hoist lights, which enabled those on shore to say what particular vessel it was; but taken along with the coloured light, the like of which he had never seen in the island, he fancied it might have some meaning which he and his comrades were interested in discovering. No sooner had this idea entered his head, than he pushed on as fast as he could along a path which was both rough and obscure, till he reached the gate of the castle. Directly he was admitted he told the soldiers, who were amusing themselves after the boisterous fashion of the time in practical jokes and noisy pastimes, of what he had seen. A sergeant went at once to the room where the officers were sitting, drinking and singing, and told them. Some of these thought it did not concern the garrison, others thought it did; and as among the latter happened to be the principal officer, he went to consult the commander of the little band, who was sitting with the few noblemen who resided here with Charles. To reach this room he had to pass the door which opened into his royal master’s sleeping room, and in doing so he stood still a moment and listened. He heard the low murmur of voices, but that was all, and he went on his way. After he had told what Cooper had seen, somebody present asked where the prince was. Another answered that he had gone to bed with the headache, whereupon the officer who had come with the news said that he had heard some persons talking in his room as he passed it. So few in number were those who dwelt in the castle, that everybody looked about him, and perceived simultaneously that no person was absent from their circle. There was a general rising: some drew their swords, others took up axes or other weapons equally effective in a close fight, and all made their way to the door of Charles’s room. One of them knocked, but there was no answer. He knocked again and louder, but still no response; all was as silent as we believe the grave to be.
Alarmed by this, a nobleman present suggested that it would be well to go up to the top of the castle, and descend by the staircase which opened into Charles’s room. The suggestion was followed without anybody speaking. One after the other they mounted the stairs which led to the summit, the noise of their own feet drowning all external sounds till they halted to unfasten the bolts which secured the trap-door, which was the same Captain Whitehead had in vain tried to raise from the outside. Then it was that some indistinct idea of what was going forward arose in their minds. The bolts were hastily drawn back, the door dashed violently upwards, and each man sprang on the platform with the agility of a tiger. The group of conspirators were so intently occupied in watching or aiding the efforts of Captain Whitehead to detach a stone, that three or four of Charles’s friends were on the platform and had heard his cries for help before they were perceived. The conspirators had no time to consider whether to fight or fly, for the cavaliers were upon them, hewing and striking almost at random. The struggle was a momentary one, the conspirators being either forced over the parapet and crushed by their fall on the rocks below, or struck to the ground and left for dead. Captain Whitehead and Turner were the only two who made what could be termed a resistance, but the latter was soon overcome; a blow from an axe fell on his forehead, and the blood rushed into his eyes. He made a feeble attempt to press it out with the fingers of his left hand, but while in the act of doing it he received stabs and blows sufficient to have destroyed life in an elephant. The leader of the conspirators sold his life at a dearer rate; but he, too, fell like the rest before the number of