If he prefers to leave things as they are, I give him my word of honour that his people are being well treated." "Well, then," said Charles d'Amboise, when the herald had conveyed this answer to him, "this _cité_ will be damaged for a long time to come!" During the 24th of September, the rain did not cease to fall in torrents. Besiegers and besieged were at a hundred paces from each other. They were employed in burying the dead, whose numbers were especially great on the side of the French, and both were preparing for a fresh struggle, though the bad weather greatly impeded the workers. Figure 58 shows the position of the besieged and the besiegers.[45] [Illustration: FIG. 58 TAKING OF AN ARTILLERY TOWER.] After the losses sustained since the commencement of the siege, the garrison scarcely reckoned more than two thousand available men, for typhus was already devastating the town; three-fourths of the wounded crowded together in the abbey were attacked by it. The good monks tended them with their utmost care, but they themselves were largely sacrificed to the contagion; and of a community of a hundred and fifty in number scarcely more than fifty survived. The progress of the besieger, however, seemed only to increase the determination of the inhabitants, and the women worked heartily at the defences. They were the first to cry shame on those of the defenders who manifested despondency. During the night between the 24th and 25th, the Sire de Montcler strengthened the retrenchment. From A to B[46] he took advantage of the ancient enclosure-wall of the abbot's pleasance, then occupied by dwellings. A culverin was mounted on a terrace at B. The retrenchment leading from C to D, which had been made of earth and the _débris_ of the houses demolished at this point, was armed with three culverins at C, at E, and D. The French on their side had cleared the platform of the conquered tower, G, had well gabioned the parapet, and mounted three pieces pointed at the retrenchment, and a spirole directed against the tower, K, which remained in the power of the Burgundians. The women, children, and old men were employed in strengthening also the second retrenchment, I, M, behind the abbey wall, and the junction, M, N. This second retrenchment was armed with three pieces. Places of egress were reserved at the extremities and through the gate, O, of the abbey. The rain continued during the 25th of September, which passed without any serious engagement. The combatants were trying one another's strength. The garrison was not numerous enough to allow of their leaving a post at the _tête du pont_. This work was abandoned on the night between the 25th and 26th, and the enemy entered it without striking a blow.