Amabel Manners, who was sitting near by with Lady Mortimer, at work upon some sewing, laughed at this remark of Edgar's, whereupon he asked her what she found amusing in his speech.
"I was thinking," she said, "that if you consulted me, I would give more cowardly counsel. To rush upon the defenders and be killed is not at all to my taste. I should be an artilleryman, were I a soldier, and stay beyond bowshot. I heard the whistling of the arrows to-day, and was glad of the good thick stone walls that protected me!"
Lady Mortimer here interposed, saying to Amabel reprovingly: "If we are to disturb the men with our talk, we had best withdraw. Quiet counsel for troubled times."
But Edgar said generously, "Amabel is right, mother. Though she speaks in jest, she speaks words of gold. I understand her meaning. She would say that one need not risk men to destroy what can be broken by throwing stones upon it. She is right. And if when daylight comes again we see a mangonel set up within range of the castle, that will be a proof of her woman's wit."
Soon after Lady Mortimer and Amabel went to their own rooms, and Hugh drawing out his map, spread it upon the table, while Edgar and he consulted as to where the besiegers were likely to
