Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/227

 t$M THE MASSACRE OF ST BARTHOLOMEW, itf to pass before the English batteries were completed. Drury himself, and all his officer s, handled spade and pickaxe. On the evening of the I ith of May, a volunteer arrived, in the person of Thomas Cecil, Lord Burghley's eldest son, who had come, as he said, without commission from his father, to learn to be a soldier. On the i yth of May the guns in front of the Spur were in position. Attempts had been made to frighten the English with stories of intended treachery. ' The sky may fall, and we shall catch lacks/ was the confid- ent answer of Killigrew. Scots and Englishmen stood arm in arm together, intending only 'to' race which should be foremost when it came to the assault/ On the 2oth the four remaining batteries were ready. On the 2 1st they opened fire; and as the shot told and the stones began to fly, and Meg, though she could throw a granite ball into the Forth, could not silence Drury's artillery, a long wild wail of despair was heard to rise behind the battlements. First the bastion fell above St Cuthbert's Church, and then David's Tower fell, carry- ing the red standard among its ruins. Down on 1 all sides came bulwark and turret, guns, platforms, car- riages, rushing amidst dust clouds over the cliffs. The College students had heard Knox say that the walls at the end would be as sand ; and now, ' gaeing up to watch the firing, they saw the Castle rinning like a sandy brae/ 1 Diary of James Melville.