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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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