The door was soon pried open.
It opened silently and without a creak.
"It may be," Cnut said, "that the door has not been opened as you say for years, but it is certain," and he placed his torch to the hinges, "that it has been well oiled within the last two or three days.

No doubt the baron intended to make his escape this way, should the worst arrive.
Now that we have the door open we had better wait quiet until the dawn commences.

The earl will blow his bugle as a signal for the advance; it will be another ten minutes before they are fairly engaged, and that will be enough for us to break open any doors that there may be between this and the castle, and to force our way inside." It seemed a long time waiting before the dawn fairly broke--still longer before the earl's bugle was heard to sound the attack.

Then the band, headed by Cnut and two or three of the strongest of the party entered the passage.
Cuthbert had had some misgivings as to his mother's injunctions to take no part in the fray, and it cannot be said that in accompanying the foresters he obeyed the letter of her instructions.

At the same time as he felt sure that the effect of a surprise would be complete and crushing, and that the party would gain the top of the keep without any serious resistance, he considered the risk was so small as to justify him in accompanying the foresters.
The passage was some five feet high, and little more than two feet wide.
It was dry and dusty, and save the marks on the ground of a human foot going and returning, doubtless that of the man who had oiled the lock the day before, the passage appeared to have been unused from the time that it left the hands of its builders.
Passing along for some distance they came to another strong oaken door.
This, like the last, yielded to the efforts of the crowbars of the foresters, and they again advanced.