Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/431

1536.] standing there were two castles, one of them 'very strong, builded all of hewn marble;' the other, on the Clare side, less formidable, but only to be approached through the first. 'The gunners,' wrote the council who accompanied the expedition, 'bent all their ordnance upon the castle, shooting at it all day; but it was of such force that the ordnance did in manner no hurt, for the wall was at the least twelve or thirteen feet thick, and both the castles were well warded with gunners, gallowglass, and horsemen, having made such fortifications of timber and hogsheads of earth as the like had not been seen in that land. They had one great piece of iron which shot bullets as great in manner as a man's head. They had also a ship piece, a Portugal piece, certain 'hagbushes,' and 'hand-guns.''

Lord Leonard, finding his cannon made no impression, fell back on the rough material of the English soldier. He gave his men the night to rest themselves. At daybreak every one was directed to prepare a faggot of wood a fathom long, 'to fill that part of the water between the land and the castle.' A party of volunteers were told off as a forlorn hope, who, with ladders in their hands, plunged across the chasm, and, 'with plain manhood and force,' scaled the bridge. The spectacle was sufficient: the garrison did not wait to make closer acquaintance with men who would venture such an enterprise. 'They scope out at the other end by footmanship,' leaving their guns and both castles in the