How long will it be, think you, before the burgher guard are here ?" "A quarter of an hour, maybe." "We should beat them back for that time," Rupert said.

"Light as many lights as you can, and place them so as to throw the light in their faces, and keep us in the shade." In two or three minutes a smashing of timber and loud shouts of triumph proclaimed that the mob were effecting an entrance.
"For the present I will stand in front, with one of these good fellows with their axes on each side of me.

The other two shall stand behind us, a step or two higher.

You, Hugh and Joe, take post with our host in the gallery above with your pistols, and cover us by shooting any man who presses us hard.

Fire slowly, pick off your men, and only leave your posts and join me here on the last necessity." They had just taken the posts assigned to them when the door fell in with a crash, and the mob poured in, just as a rush took place from the side passages by those who had made their way in through the lower windows.
"A grim set of men," Rupert said to himself.
They were indeed a grim set.