alls with the sound of their trumpets, and the display of innumerable
banners, a large vessel, prepared for the purpose, was towed towards the
town from the mouth of the river. She was filled with armed soldiers,
a party of whom were placed in her boat drawn up mid-mast high; whilst
to the bow of the boat was fixed a species of drawbridge, which it was
intended to drop upon the wall, and thus afford a passage from the
vessel into the town. Yet these complicated preparations failed of
success, although seconded by the greatest gallantry; and the English,
after being baffled in every attempt to fix their ladders and maintain
themselves upon the walls, were compelled to retire, leaving their
vessel to be burnt by the Scots, who slew many of her crew, and made
prisoner the engineer who superintended and directed the attack.

This unsuccessful attack was, after five days' active preparation,
followed by another still more desperate, in which the besiegers
made use of a huge machine moving upon wheels, and including several
platforms or stages, which held various parties of armed soldiers, who
were defended by a strong roofing of boards and hides, beneath which
they could work their battering-rams with impunity. To co-operate with
this unwieldy and bulky instrument, which, from its shape and covering,
they called a "sow," movable scaffolds had been constructed, of such a
height as to overtop the walls, from which they proposed to storm the
town; and, instead of a single vessel, as on the former occasion, a
squadron of ships, with their top castles manned by picked bodies of
archers, and their armed boats slung mast high, were ready to sail
in with the tide, and anchor beneath the walls. Aware of these great
preparations, the Scots, under the encouragement and direction of their
governor, laboured incessantly to be in a situation to render them
unavailing. By Crab, the Flemish engineer, machines similar to the Roman
catapult, moving on wheels, and of enormous strength and dimensions,
were constructed and placed on the walls at the spot where it was
expected the sow would make its approach. In addition to this, they
fixed a crane upon the rampart, armed with iron chains and grappling
hooks, and large masses of combustibles and fire-faggots, shaped like
tuns, and composed of pitch and flax, bound strongly together with tar
ropes, were piled up in readiness for the attack. At different intervals
on the walls were fixed the espring