Page:Tudor Jenks--The defense of the castle.djvu/97

Rh fall, and we can correct our aim by his reports."

While these arrangements were being made, a second shot was projected by the besiegers, and a cheer from their ranks showed that it had reached its mark. When Edgar and Hugh ran to examine the palisade, they found that a gap had been made, three of the tree-trunks having been knocked out of place. But Hugh laughed at this. "Those tree-trunks will have cost them two days already," said he. "We put them up to be knocked down."

Then two stones were discharged almost at the same moment from the mangonels on the castle wall, and both fell so near the besiegers' engine that the workmen ran for their lives.

"Good!" cried Edgar. "Aim a little closer, and we shall wreck the mangonel itself."

Friar Bacon, taking a lever from one of the soldiers, moved his mangonel slightly, and then it was again loaded and discharged. There was a pause as the stone flew upward, and then they heard a crash, and a cheer from the defenders. The enemy's mangonel had been struck, and one of the supporting timbers was cut in two.

Friar Bacon who came out upon the battlements to see for himself the result of the shot, smiled grimly.