ars were
over.

"I am unlucky in my comrades," said Denys.

The next morning an unwelcome sight greeted the besieged. The cat was
covered with mattresses and raw hides, and fast filling up the moat. The
knight stoned it, but in vain; flung burning tar-barrels on it, but in
vain. Then with his own hands he let down by a rope a bag of burning
sulphur and pitch, and stunk them out. But Baldwyn, armed like a
lobster, ran, and bounding on the roof, cut the string, and the work
went on. Then the knight sent fresh engineers into the mine, and
undermined the place and underpinned it with beams, and covered the
beams thickly with grease and tar.

At break of day the moat was filled, and the wooden tower began to move
on its wheels towards a part of the curtain on which two catapults
were already playing to breach the hoards, and clear the way. There was
something awful and magical in its approach without visible agency, for
it was driven by internal rollers worked by leverage. On the top was a
platform, where stood the first assailing party protected in front by
the drawbridge of the turret, which stood vertical till lowered on to
the wall; but better protected by full suits of armour. The beseiged
slung at the tower, and struck it often, but in vain. It was well
defended with mattresses and hides, and presently was at the edge of the
moat. The knight bade fire the mine underneath it.

Then the Turkish engine flung a stone of half a hundredweight right
amongst the knights, and carried two away with it off the tower on to
the plain. One lay and writhed: the other neither moved nor spake.

And now the besieging catapults flung blazing tar-barrels, and fired the
hoards on both sides, and the assailants ran up the ladders behind the
tower, and lowered the drawbridge on to the battered curtain, while the
catapults in concert flung tar-barrels and fired the adjoining works
to dislodge the defenders. The armed men on the platform sprang on the
bridge, led by Baldwyn. The invulnerable knight and his men-at-arms met
them, and a fearful combat ensued, in which many a figure was seen
to fall headlong down off the narrow bridge. But fresh besiegers kept
swarming up behind the tower, and the besieged were driven off the
bridge.

Another minute, and the town was taken; but so well had the firing of
the mine been timed, that just at this instant the underpinners gave
way, and the tower suddenly sank away from the walls, tearing the
dra