In the courtyard a number of men were engaged oiling the catapults, ballistas, and other machines for hurling stones.

All were discussing the chances of the assault, for it was no easy matter which they had set themselves to do.

Wortham Hold was an extremely strong one, and it needed all and more than all the machines at their disposal to undertake so formidable an operation as a siege.
The garrison, too, were strong and desperate; and the baron, knowing what must follow his outrage of the day before, would have been sure to send off messengers round the country begging his friends to come to his assistance.

Cuthbert had begged permission of his mother to ask the earl to allow him to join as a volunteer, but she would not hear of it.
Neither would she suffer him to mingle with the foresters.

The utmost that he could obtain was that he might go as a spectator, with strict injunctions to keep himself out of the fray, and as far as possible beyond bow-shot of the castle wall.
It was a force of some four hundred strong that issued from the wood early next morning to attack the stronghold at Wortham.