OUT OF THE SHADOWS Through the black night sudden and red there shot a sheet of fire illumining all things as lightning does.

Above the roaring of the gale there echoed a dull and heavy noise like to that of muffled thunder.
Then after a moment's pause and silence the sky rained stones, and with them the limbs of men.
"The gateway's gone," shouted a great voice, it was that of Bolle.

"Out with the ladders!" Men who were waiting ran up with them and thrust them, four in all, athwart the moat.

By the planks that were lashed along their staves they scrambled across and over the piles of shattered masonry into the courtyard beyond where none waited them, for all who watched here were dead or maimed.
"Light the lanterns," shouted Bolle again, "for it will be dark in yonder," and a man who followed with a torch obeyed him.
Then they rushed across the courtyard to the door of the refectory, which stood open.

Here in the wide, high-roofed hall they met the mass of Maldon's people pouring back from the faggoted breach, where they had been gathered, expecting attack, some of them also bearing lanterns.