But the secret had been too well kept, and it was not until the following day that the man who had been placed in a cottage near the convent arrived in all haste in the forest, to say that it was only in the morning that he had learnt that the convent had been broken open by men disguised as archers, and the Lady Margaret carried off.
Four days elapsed before Sir Rudolph presented himself before the girl he had captured.

So fearfully was his face bruised and disfigured by the blow from the mailed hand of Cuthbert three weeks before, that he did not wish to appear before her under such unfavourable circumstances, and the captive passed the day gazing from her casement in one of the rooms in the upper part of the keep, towards the forest whence she hoped rescue would come.
Within the forest hot discussions were going on as to the best course to pursue.

An open attack was out of the question, especially as upon the day following the arrival there of Lady Margaret, 300 more mercenaries had marched in from Worcester, so that the garrison was now raised to 500 men.
"Is there no way," Cnut exclaimed furiously, "by which we might creep into this den, since we cannot burst into it openly ?" "There is a way from the castle," Cuthbert said, "for my dear lord told me of it one day when we were riding together in the Holy Land.

He said then that it might be that he should never return, and that it were well that I should know of the existence of this passage, which few beside the earl himself knew of.

It is approached by a very heavy slab of stone in the great hall.