the edge of the moat opposite the wooden tower, a strong penthouse,
which they called "a cat," might be seen stealing towards the curtain,
and gradually filling up the moat with fascines and rubbish, which the
workmen flung out at its mouth. It was advanced by two sets of ropes
passing round pulleys, and each worked by a windlass at some distance
from the cat. The knight burnt the first cat by flinging blazing
tar-barrels on it. So the besiegers made the roof of this one very
steep, and covered it with raw hides, and the tar-barrels could not harm
it. Then the knight made signs with his spear, and a little trebuchet
behind the walls began dropping stones just clear of the wall into the
moat, and at last they got the range, and a stone went clean through the
roof of the cat, and made an ugly hole.

Baldwyn of Burgundy saw this, and losing his temper, ordered the great
catapult that was battering the wood-work of the curtain opposite it to
be turned and levelled slantwise at this invulnerable knight. Denys and
his Englishman went to dinner. These two worthies being eternally on
the watch for one another had made a sort of distant acquaintance, and
conversed by signs, especially on a topic that in peace or war maintains
the same importance. Sometimes Denys would put a piece of bread on the
top of his mantelet, and then the archer would hang something of the
kind out by a string; or the order of invitation would be reversed.
Anyway, they always managed to dine together.

And now the engineers proceeded to the unusual step of slinging
fifty-pound stones at an individual.

This catapult was a scientific, simple, and beautiful engine, and very
effective in vertical fire at the short ranges of the period.

Imagine a fir-tree cut down, and set to turn round a horizontal axis on
lofty uprights, but not in equilibrio; three-fourths of the tree being
on the hither side. At the shorter and thicker end of the tree was
fastened a weight of half a ton. This butt end just before the discharge
pointed towards the enemy. By means of a powerful winch the long
tapering portion of the tree was forced down to the very ground, and
fastened by a bolt; and the stone placed in a sling attached to the
tree's nose. But this process of course raised the butt end with its
huge weight high in the air, and kept it there struggling in vain
to come down. The bolt was now drawn; Gravity, an institution which
flourished even then, resumed its sway, the