Escapes! by Laura Scandiffio Page B

they spread through the streets, throwing firebrands among the houses, capturing as many of Matilda’s followers as they could find. Their new prisoners were put in chains — they could be traded for a ransom later.
    The rest of Matilda’s force fled with their lady in a desperate retreat to the castle, where they shut themselves inside. And left Stephen with no choice but to do this the hard way.

    Once the heavy doors closed behind her, Matilda had felt safe in her stronghold. Inside the high stone keep, she was confident she could withstand anything Stephen brought against her. She knew the three enemies of people under siege — hunger, thirst, and fire. Her castle had ample supplies and a deep well, and its towering stone walls would not burn.
    Let him come, she thought. And her knights braced themselves for the assault.
    They did not have to wait long. First a rain of stones slung against the walls, then showers of arrows from a host of cross-bows. Stephen’s methods were simple: surround the castle and bombard it nonstop.
    Matilda’s knights fought back. They rained down stones and quicklime on the attackers from the top of the castle, and aimed their bows through the arrow-loops that slit the stone walls. They kept a strict watch for any scouts or assault teams who might try to crawl up the mound at the castle’s base. And they waited anxiously for the siege engines they knew the King could bring to batter the castle defenses. Monstrous catapults that hurled rocks into or over the walls. Battering rams to break down the doors.
    While her men held the king’s army at bay, Matilda plotted her next move. She could take her time. She knew sieges moved slowly — weeks, months could pass with both sides in a standoff. There was plenty of time for reinforcements to arrive. Time for her half-brother, Earl Robert, or her husband to come to her aid. Months ago, Robert had sailed to France to convince Matilda’s husband, Geoffrey of Anjou, to join her cause. But she had heard nothing since. Where were they?
    Robert was always one to play for time, Matilda reasoned. He’d wait for the right moment. But deep down she knew that any help from her husband was doubtful. They were not close. Still, he might act for their son’s sake, if not hers — to protect young Henry’s birthright in England!
    Just hold out, she told herself. Help is on the way.

    Stephen knew that laying siege to Matilda and her knights would be a long, ugly struggle. Matilda was no fool and had surely stocked the castle well with food and supplies. But Stephen had already learned that as long as she was on the loose he would have no peace. It seemed he had spent most of his reign dashing from castle to castle, laying siege to rebel after rebel. No sooner was one rebel army defeated than another reared its head, defying him to attack. This time he would not budge.
    Messengers arrived, breathless with news. Matilda’s allies had joined their forces about 15 miles down the Thames at Wallingford. Then word came that Earl Robert had returned from France and attacked Stephen’s garrison at Wareham. The royal troops inside the castle were “shaken and terrified by the Earl’s siege engines,” they said. The castellan had asked Robert for a truce so he could summon help from the king.
    But Stephen refused to be lured away from the Oxford siege. “No hope of gain, no fear of loss will make me go away,” he declared, “unless the castle is surrendered and the empress brought into my power.”
    Nothing would drag him from his goal — to capture Matilda and end the war.

    Staring at the dying embers of her small fire, Matilda could no longer ignore the doubts that plagued her mind. The siege had entered its third grueling month. Winter deepened.
    She and her knights were famished. Scarcely eating, they tried to make their meager supplies last as long as possible. When the well dried