The door was soon prised 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.