St. George and St. Michael. Volume II

The passage for the overflow of the water of the moat was under the / sunk walk which, reaching from the gate of the stone court round to / the gate of the fountain court, enclosed the keep and its moat, / looping them on as it were to the side of the double quadrangle of / the castle. The only way out of this passage, at whose entrance / Richard now found himself, was into the moat. As quietly therefore / as he could, he got through the opening and into the water, amongst / the lilies, where, much impeded by their tangling roots, which / caused him many a submergence, but with a moon in her second quarter / over his head to light him, he swam gently along. As he looked up / from the water, however, to the huge crag-like tower over his head, / the soft moonlight smoothing the rigour but bringing out all the / wasteness of the grim blank, it seemed a hopeless attempt he had / undertaken. Not the less did he keep his eye on the tower-side of / the moat, and had not swum far before he caught sight of the little / stair, which, enclosed in one of the six small round bastions / encircling it, led up from the moat to the walk immediately around / the citadel.

The foot of this stair was, strangely enough, one of / the only two points in the defence of the moat not absolutely / commanded from either one or the other of the two gates of the / castle. The top of the stair, however, was visible from one extreme / point over the western gate, and the moment Richard, finding the / small thick iron-studded door open, put his head out of the bastion, / he caught sight of a warder far away, against the moonlit sky. All / of the castle except the spot where that man stood, was hidden by / the near bulk of the keep. He drew back, and sat down on the top of / the stair -- to think and let the water run from his clothes. When he / issued, it was again on all-fours. He had, however, only to creep an / inch or two to the right to be covered by one of the angles of the / tower.