Page:Tudor Jenks--The defense of the castle.djvu/202

174 them to turn and behold the volumes of smoke that poured from it. The attacking parties at once rushed back into the tower hoping to extinguish the flames, whereupon the Franciscan Friar began to work the mangonel, sending showers of small stones to harass the Count's soldiers who were swarming into the narrow opening of the tower. Then arose a cry "Close the drawbridge," and the great platform was hauled up by the tackles, and shut off the attack of the mangonel, while also diminishing the draft that fed the flames. But there was a strong wind, and though the Count's men worked desperately, they could not put out the fire. It gained on them every minute, and soon they were forced to abandon their tower to save their lives. They swarmed down the ladders, climbed down the timber-work, lowered themselves by ropes, and left the tower to its fate.

Meanwhile the garrison cheered over their victory, and stood upon the ramparts watching the burning of the siege-tower as long as they could endure the heat. But soon they were compelled to take refuge within the towers, and even had to extinguish some places where woodwork caught fire in the hoardings and the framework of their mangonels. Consequently most of them paid little attention to the retreat of the men who had been