Page:Tudor Jenks--The defense of the castle.djvu/224

196 of the tower. The attacking party were able to deliver heavy blows upon the door, which was cracking and must soon be forced.

In order to strengthen the door, Hugh and the Friar ordered their men to chop to pieces the mangonel that still stood upon the tower-roof, and to brace its beams against the door from within. But though the axmen went to work with a will, there was not time. The door cracked, bent inward, and then gave way at its lower hinge. At this moment, there fell a long beam from the top of the tower, striking the head of the ram, and carrying down two of the foremost soldiers who were carrying it. This brought a short delay before the delivery of the next blow, and Hugh, running nimbly down the tower stairs, set fire in several places to the faggots piled up in a lower room. Returning, he gave orders that his men should withdraw from the tower, and as noiselessly as they could they slipped out one by one, ran across the rampart, and took refuge in the northwest tower, whence they sent their arrows against the Count's men.

Hardly had the garrison deserted the tower, when the door fell, and the assailants dropping the ram, rushed in with drawn swords, only to find the tower empty, and to be met by rolling volumes of stifling smoke. They could not remain within