If we cut our bread up into small portions we can hold out for days.

There should be snow enough on the tower top to furnish us with drink." After hammering at the door for some time, the peasants retired convinced that there were none of their own people within the tower, and that those who had slept there were the fugitives of whom they had been in search during the night.

These might, indeed, have departed in the interval between the time when the woman first saw the traces of their presence and her return with them; but they did not think that this was so, for in that case they could not have fastened the door behind them.
The peasants accordingly withdrew a short distance from the church, and three of their number were sent off in different directions to bring up reinforcements.

As soon as Malcolm saw this movement he knew that concealment was useless, and began to make preparations for the defence.
First, he with the sergeant ascended to the roof of the tower.

To his disappointment he saw that the heat of the flames had melted the snow, and that most of the water had run away.