At the edge of the moat opposite the wooden tower, a strong penthouse, which they called "a cat," might be seen stealing towards the curtain, and gradually filling up the moat with fascines and rubbish, which the workmen flung out at its mouth.It was advanced by two sets of ropes passing round pulleys, and each worked by a windlass at some distance from the cat.The knight burnt the first cat by flinging blazing tar-barrels on it.So the besiegers made the roof of this one very steep, and covered it with raw hides, and the tar-barrels could not harm it.Then the knight made signs with his spear, and a little trebuchet behind the walls began dropping stones just clear of the wall into the moat, and at last they got the range, and a stone went clean through the roof of the cat, and made an ugly hole.
Baldwyn of Burgundy saw this, and losing his temper, ordered the great catapult that was battering the wood-work of the curtain opposite it to be turned and levelled slantwise at this invulnerable knight.Denys and his Englishman went to dinner.
These two worthies being eternally on the watch for one another had made a sort of distant acquaintance, and conversed by signs, especially on a topic that in peace or war maintains the same importance.Sometimes Denys would put a piece of bread on the top of his mantelet, and then the archer would hang something of the kind out by a string; or the order of invitation would be reversed.Anyway, they always managed to dine together.
And now the engineers proceeded to the unusual step of slinging fifty-pound stones at an individual.
This catapult was a scientific, simple, and beautiful engine, and very effective in vertical fire at the short ranges of the period.
Imagine a fir-tree cut down, and set to turn round a horizontal axis on lofty uprights, but not in equilibrio; three-fourths of the tree being on the hither side.At the shorter and thicker end of the tree was fastened a weight of half a ton.This butt end just before the discharge pointed towards the enemy.By means of a powerful winch the long tapering portion of the tree was forced down to the very ground, and fastened by a bolt; and the stone placed in a sling attached to the tree's nose.But this process of course raised the butt end with its huge weight high in the air, and kept it there struggling in vain to come down.The bolt was now drawn; Gravity, an institution which flourished even then, resumed its sway, the short end swung furiously down, the long end went as furiously round up, and at its highest elevation flung the huge stone out of the sling with a tremendous jerk.In this case the huge mass so flung missed the knight; but came down near him on the penthouse, and went through it like paper, making an awful gap in roof and floor.Through the latter fell out two inanimate objects, the stone itself and the mangled body of a besieger it had struck.They fell down the high curtain side, down, down, and struck almost together the sullen waters of the moat, which closed bubbling on them, and kept both the stone and the bone two hundred years, till cannon mocked those oft perturbed waters, and civilization dried them.
"Aha! a good shot," cried Baldwyn of Burgundy.
The tall knight retired.The besiegers hooted him.
He reappeared on the platform of the barbican, his helmet being just visible above the parapet.He seemed very busy, and soon an enormous Turkish catapult made its appearance on the platform and aided by the elevation at which it was planted, flung a twentypound stone some two hundred and forty yards in the air; it bounded after that, and knocked some dirt into the Lord Anthony's eye, and made him swear.The next stone struck a horse that was bringing up a sheaf of arrows in a cart, bowled the horse over dead like a rabbit, and spilt the cart.It was then turned at the besiegers' wooden tower, supposed to be out of shot.Sir Turk slung stones cut with sharp edges on purpose, and struck it repeatedly, and broke it in several places.The besiegers turned two of their slinging engines on this monster, and kept constantly slinging smaller stones on to the platform of the barbican, and killed two of the engineers.But the Turk disdained to retort.He flung a forty-pound stone on to the besiegers' great catapult, and hitting it in the neighbourhood of the axis, knocked the whole structure to pieces, and sent the engineers skipping and yelling.
In the afternoon, as Simon was running back to his mantelet from a palisade where he had been shooting at the besieged, Denys, peeping through his slit, saw the poor fellow suddenly stare and hold out his arms, then roll on his face, and a feathered arrow protruded from his back.The archer showed himself a moment to enjoy his skill.It was the Englishman.Denys, already prepared, shot his bolt, and the murderous archer staggered away wounded.
But poor Simon never moved.His wars were over.
"I am unlucky in my comrades," said Denys.
The next morning an unwelcome sight greeted the besieged.The cat was covered with mattresses and raw hides, and fast filling up the moat.The knight stoned it, but in vain; flung burning tar-barrels on it, but in vain.Then with his own hands he let down by a rope a bag of burning sulphur and pitch, and stunk them out.But Baldwyn, armed like a lobster, ran, and bounding on the roof, cut the string, and the work went on.Then the knight sent fresh engineers into the mine, and undermined the place and underpinned it with beams, and covered the beams thickly with grease and tar.
