Page:Tudor Jenks--The defense of the castle.djvu/226

198 he struck a spark into his tinder-box, lighted a match and as soon as he had applied the flame to the fuse, took to his heels.

Fortunately for the besiegers, the explosion of the Friar's mine happened to take place just as they had retired in order to repeat their assault with the ram; and only a few of the foremost men were near enough to be injured. With a roar and a shock that deafened them, the mine exploded, shattering the wall above it, and leaving a wide gap between the tower and the ruined end of the wall. But the effect of the explosion upon the assailants was much greater than any harm done by it to them or to the castle. The noise, like nothing they had ever heard except a thunderbolt, the terrific power shown by the flying upward of the massive stonework, the shattering of the heavy wall at a single blow, the flash of light and flame, and above all the sulphurous fumes and the heavy smoke—all combined to make the Count's men think that the infernal regions had opened at their very feet. Without a moment's pause they broke and fled wherever they could go, dropping the great beam, and some of them even flinging down their weapons as they ran. In vain the Count and a few of his bravest followers strove to halt the panic-stricken soldiers. The smell of sulphur meant to these superstitious soldiers the