Part 8 (1/2)
Thereupon, trees were felled in the forest on the plateau, and the timberwork of the houses of the lower town brought away. A moat, filled from the river, surrounded the works of the great _tete de pont_; but those of the smaller one no longer possessed any; the fosse had long been filled up, and the besieged had neglected to sink it afresh. The south wall of the _Emporium_, which joined the northern shoulder of that smaller _tete de pont_, was crenelated, and in the hands of the defenders, including the square return on the road coming from the west.
Thus half the area of the Emporium was commanded in its length by this wall.[13] Astride on this western road, Secondinus erected an _agger_ which rested against the river, fifty paces from the square return, and on this agger he fixed up a work of framed timber, which commanded the enemy's rampart (Fig. 21). Around the great _tete de pont_, he contented himself with raising a contravallation, which cut off the two roads.
Before the eastern gate of the city, the operation presented great difficulties, because of the steepness of the slope of the plateau.
Every night, the besiegers' works were thrown down by the defenders, who had the advantage of the dominant position. Secondinus, after several unsuccessful attempts, was obliged to confine himself to forming beneath the ascent of the plateau a work of earth and timber, forming an arc of a circle, as in the accompanying sketch (Fig. 22).
The besiegers could reach this work, which was out of range of the plateau, by a road descending gently towards the western arm of the rivulet.
These works had not been executed without attempts on the part of the besieged to destroy them, nor without considerable loss on the part of the Franks. A fortnight, however, after the enemy's arrival, they were completed, and strongly guarded.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 21.]
The enemy's troops were thus disposed around the cite:--The large encampment on the north plateau was occupied by twelve thousand men; the defenders of the great contravallation on the same side numbered two thousand. The body lodged in the lower town consisted of six thousand men; the guard of the work opposite the small _tete de pont_, five hundred; that of the contravallation around the great _tete de pont_, one thousand two hundred; the work raised at the bottom of the plateau facing the east gate contained one thousand two hundred men. Total: twenty-two thousand nine hundred men. There remained, deducting for losses since the commencement of the siege, about ten thousand soldiers, who scoured and devastated the country, collected provisions and forage, and formed a reserve corps, ready to make a fresh attempt when the propitious moment arrived.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 22.]
These preparations rendered it clear to Clodoald that the enemy since his first checks was acting with method, and preparing for a decisive action. He had quickly perceived that his attack would be directed to the weak points of the fortress,--that is to say, the northern salient and the banks of the river opposite the western bend of the cite; he had therefore strongly barricaded all the roads of the town leading to the quay, and had strengthened the latter with a _vallum_.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 23]
In addition to this, two hundred paces behind the square tower on the river, to the north, he had run another vallum, _a_, _b_, through the houses and gardens, following the slopes of the plateau in an oblique direction, and joining the south-west gate (Fig. 23). The habitations had been left as a mask in front of this entrenchment; a few houses and fences only had been cleared away to give a free s.p.a.ce outside.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 24.]
Clodoald could not attempt anything before the northern salient, the enemy being there in front of him in force; but within the salient itself he sunk ditches with retrenchments of earth and stakes, as shown in Fig. 24. These works being low and masked were invisible to the enemy outside. Every night he sent out of the city, by the postern which led to the bottom of the wide fosse on the northern front, spies who rendered him an account of the operations of the enemy.
At the end of the third week from the beginning of the siege, his spies reported a considerable degree of activity in the large camp; that f.a.ggots were being got ready, that the soldiers were preparing their arms, and that war-engines were being mounted. One of these spies, who crossed the river below the town and observed the att.i.tude of the enemy encamped on the west, brought a similar report. Clodoald judged, therefore, that the besiegers were on the point of attempting a grand effort on the west and the north.
On the morning of the twenty-third day of the siege, in fact, four _onagri_ planted on the work opposite the small _tete de pont_ swept the latter with stones so effectually that the defenders were scarcely sheltered behind the parapets, and could not work the engines placed at that point. At the same time, boats laden with inflammable materials were launched in the river above the wooden bridge. These boats, impelled in the direction required, were arrested by the piles of the bridge, and were not long in setting it on fire (Fig. 25). The defenders of the small _tete de pont_, seeing that their retreat was going to be cut off, abandoned the work, which was soon occupied by the Franks.
Retired within the _place d'armes_ behind the bridge, the besieged could do nothing but watch the fire.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG 25.]
At the same time, s.h.i.+elded by wicker mantelets, a numerous troop of the enemy were advancing boldly against the north-east and north-west flanks of the northern salient. Filling up the fosse with f.a.ggots, the a.s.sailants rushed in a dense column against the rampart. The conflict was furious. Thanks to the stonework of the aqueduct the enemy were unable to break through the north-east flank; but they succeeded in gaining a footing[14] on the opposite one. The besieged were obliged to abandon the salient, retiring from one retrenchment to another, and with but slight loss, whereas the a.s.sailants had more than two hundred men killed on the rampart and in the ditches.
At nightfall Clodoald with the three thousand men of his reserve corps issued suddenly by the central gate--the bridge of which, strongly barricaded, had remained in his possession--and fell upon the enemy: he killed a hundred more, but was unable to retake the work. Moreover, he antic.i.p.ated another attack, and was not mistaken. Towards midnight the Franks took possession of the island of sand with the help of rafts, and there entrenched themselves in front of the quay. They were within bowshot, and arrows were discharged on both sides, but with little result.
The loss of the advanced work had only the effect of animating the besieged, who were for immediately re-taking it. Clodoald had to calm their ardour by promising them to do better than retake it; adding, that just then he had another enterprise in view, and that the enemy was going to give them a fine opportunity of beating him.
Clodoald strengthened the defences of the northern front, which could not be taken by storm; placed a strong body in the outwork of the eastern gate, with orders to defend it to the last man; and sent down as large a number of troops as they would hold into the two _places d`armes_ south and south-west. He strongly manned the oblique entrenchment descending to the edge of the water, and placed there a chief on whom he could depend, with special instructions.
The next day pa.s.sed without fighting. The Franks were engaged in intrenching themselves within the outwork against the north front, and destroying the _vallum_. They were bringing to the island timbers, fascines, earth, and stones, and were beginning to fill up the small arm with these materials. Sheltering themselves with wicker mantelets, they threw stones into the water, then fascines, in which large pebbles were inclosed to make them sink between the stones, then when these materials began to rise above the surface; they laid trunks of trees upon them across the stream, and between these fascines and clods of turf. The besieged could scarcely do anything to hinder these operations. Two _onagri_ sometimes hurled stones at the workmen; but they, well s.h.i.+elded and always in motion, were seldom struck. Towards evening the embankment was barely twenty feet from the quay wall, and the water--rather low at that season--ran through the sunken fascines without endangering the stability of the dam. The Franks continued all night working at the consolidation and enlargement of the causeway; then they brought timbers and ladders, and raised on its extremity about fifteen feet from the quay wall a stage of timberwork prepared beforehand. At daybreak the besieged perceived on the stage the end of a kind of bridge, furnished with a wicker mantelet, moving slowly forwards towards the edge of the quay (Fig. 26). Secondinus had the platform of a bridge framed ten feet wide: this platform, laid on rollers which rested on the inclined beams, was propelled by soldiers, aided by levers, and drawn by two cables wound on capstans fixed in advance. The men with the levers were screened by sheets of thick canvas stretched before them, which stopped the darts. All this time two catapults and two _onagri_ showered long darts and stones on the _vallum_ of the quay; while slingers and archers rendered it impossible for the defenders to show themselves.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 26.--THE ATTACK--THE MOVABLE BRIDGE INTENDED FOR CROSSING THE SMALL ARM OF THE RIVER OF ABONIA.]
The chief who commanded the latter, following the instructions of Clodoald, drew his men gradually away in the direction of the houses; and when the rolling bridge attained the ridge of the _vallum_ of the quay, not a single Burgundian remained behind this defence. The Franks rushed with loud shouts on the platform, threw down the wicker parapet, and spread themselves in great numbers over the deserted and silent quay. Dreading some ambuscade, they were in no hurry to ascend the slopes of the plateau, gentle though they were at this point, or to venture along the roads whose barricades appeared not to be guarded.
They drew up along the quay in good order until they numbered about four thousand men. This did not take long; for as soon as the first few had pa.s.sed from the stage to the _vallum_, the besiegers had placed beams across on which they laid logs, brushwood, and turf, and the bridge had thus attained a width of nearly thirty feet.
A second body of considerable strength ready to sustain the first was a.s.sembled on the island, and a third body was approaching on the opposite bank.
Secondinus was one of the first to reach the left bank, and he augured no good from the apparent inaction of the besieged. He desired that any advance should be made with caution, and not until a _tete de pont_ had been erected with stakes and _debris_ taken from the neighbouring houses. An exploring party sent into these houses found that they were deserted, while behind the barricades erected where the roads opened on the quay there were no defenders.
He therefore ordered these barricades to be cleared away. All this took up time, and the Franks began to murmur loudly, asking if they had been sent across the river merely to guard the sh.o.r.es. Their chiefs insisted that the besieged had abandoned this part of the cite, as they had the lower town, that they had retired behind their walls, and that if advantage was not taken of their retreat, they would regain courage and come and attack the Franks in the night; that it was essential to occupy the ground vacated by them without loss of time, and take up a position beneath the walls, seizing in its rear the smaller _place d'armes_.