Page:Tudor Jenks--The defense of the castle.djvu/204

176 weaken their defenses. All turned out as he had hoped, and when the combined attack began, the blows of the ram, acting upon a place already weakened, soon sent the wall tumbling down, and though it fell outward, the breach was thereby the easier to mount.

The falling wall smashed the roof of the cat and disabled the battering-ram; but the soldiers who had been working the ram, had run out and escaped with their lives. Following the crash of the falling wall were heard the cries of the Count's soldiers advancing to the breach. The fall of the wall had left an opening about twenty feet in width, and through this the garrison and the besiegers could see one another. The men under Edgar's command were gathered about an inner gateway that was in the main walls of the castle—diagonally across from the gate that had been demolished—for the ram had broken its way through the masonry below, and to the left of the outer gate of the castle. One of the gate-towers had fallen with the ruined wall. The Count's assaulting force came on at a run, and at once climbed over the pile of rocks that had fallen, and over the ruins of their "cat." They were met by a volley from the archers, and the foremost of the party were struck down. Others followed at once, and though a second volley was poured upon