FOOTNOTES:
[4] A pace was equivalent to three feet.
[5] The Gallic foot was the pied du roi (thirteen inches).
[6] The dark line indicates the habitations preserved, the red line the tenements rebuilt on the sites left unoccupied after the clearing necessary for the fortifications and their approaches.
[7] These new roads are indicated by red lines.
[8] The catapults could discharge bolts six feet long and very heavy. The onagri hurled stones of sixty pounds weight to a maximum distance of two hundred and fifty paces.
CHAPTER VIII.
Whether the Burgundians crossed the Rhine at the solicitation of the Gauls, or to find more fertile settlements, or because the emperor Honorius had granted them a territory on the left bank of the river, certain it is that about the year 450 they were occupying the banks of the Saône, and had pushed their way northwards to the neighbourhood of Langres and Besançon, westwards as far as Autun, and southwards beyond Lyons. Having entered Gaul as allies—as auxiliaries of the tottering empire—they treated the inhabitants with a degree of consideration which was not shown by the Franks and other tribes that were gradually invading the west. They had indeed gained concessions of lands and gifts of herds but they were living on a footing of equality with the Gauls, and their presence resulted in a partition of property with the new comers rather than subjection to their sway. The establishment of the Burgundians on Gallic soil may be compared with that of those colonies of veterans whom Rome sent out formerly to various territories, whose position was similar to that of the original inhabitants, and who in the second generation were confounded with them.
Gondebald, the third king of the Burgundians since their entrance on Gallic soil, was sovereign in the year 500. At that time the territory of this kingdom extended from Basle to Lorraine and Champagne, included the district round Macon, reached as far as the frontiers of Auvergne, and skirting the High Alps, followed the course of the Rhône to the shores of the Mediterranean. Juliana, including the city and fortress, with the district appertaining to it, was therefore clearly in Burgundian ground. The war undertaken by Clovis against Gondebald, and the defeat of the latter near Dijon, had indeed resulted in reducing the extent of Burgundy on the north-west; but Autun and even Dijon and Langres still remained in the hands of Gondomar, the second son of Gondebald since Childebert and Clotaire came and besieged him in the first of these three cities. Gondomar had been elected king of the Burgundians, after his eldest brother Sigismund had been deposed and condemned to monastic seclusion at Orleans by the sons of Clovis. Gondomar put his tenable places in a state of defence, collected an army, and after a battle with the Franks in Dauphiny, and in which Clodomir perished, resumed peaceable possession of his kingdom. Ten years later Clotaire and Childebert made a fresh attempt to destroy the menacing power of Gondomar. They wished to associate Theodoric with them; but as he was occupied with a war in Auvergne, he refused to accompany them. The two sons of Clovis therefore directed their forces in 532 towards Burgundy, and sat down before Autun, in which the king of the Burgundians had shut himself up.
The cité was on the point of being taken; Gondomar succeeded in escaping with some of his troops, and took refuge in the cité Juliana, as one of the best munitioned strongholds of his kingdom, and the key to all the mountainous and wooded part of Burgundy.
He was hoping to keep the troops of the Franks there till winter, and then to take advantage of the rigour of the season in that district to assume the offensive, with the aid of auxiliaries promised from the East.
In fact, Clotaire and Childebert having taken Autun about the middle of the summer, led their army before the cité Juliana; for they could not think of pursuing their conquest while leaving this place on their flanks or behind them.
Gondomar, having entered it about a fortnight before the arrival of the Franks, had caused the defences to be repaired and provided with all that was needed to sustain a long siege.
The lower town, the cité, and the vale, contained at that time a population of about forty thousand souls, among whom might be reckoned at least ten thousand persons capable of bearing arms. Many had even become practically acquainted with war. For since the time of Julian Gaul had been the theatre of incessant struggles; and though the country surrounding Juliana had remained comparatively tranquil, its inhabitants, both Gauls and Burgundians, had been present at more than one engagement, especially since the definitive invasion of the men of the North. These barbarians, long the auxiliaries of the empire, had themselves learned the profession of war in the Roman school, and were making use of the military engines adopted by the imperial armies.
Among the Franks, however, as among the Burgundians, the Roman standard of discipline was not attained, and these troops had not the firmness and tenacity which still distinguished the best soldiers commanded by the generals of the empire. On the other hand they were often brave even to temerity.
The cité Juliana was well stored with provisions and munitions of every sort when the army of the Franks presented itself. Gondomar had not thought it possible to defend that part of the town situated on the right bank of the river of Abonia; for it was open, the habitations having been built beyond the line of Roman intrenchments, and the latter being commanded on the western front. He had contented himself with keeping the two têtes de pont; one, the smallest, up the stream, covering a wooden bridge; the other, the largest, a stone bridge. As soon as the enemy's approach was announced, Gondomar set fire to the foot-bridges spanning the river across the islet of sand.[See [Fig. 16].]
The troops of Childebert and Clotaire debouched by the northern road and the western plateau, above the part of the town that had been abandoned. These troops therefore formed two bodies, separated by the river. Gondomar was a man of astuteness rather than a soldier; but he had with him a certain Clodoald, a veteran of long experience in arms, and who knew how to inspire confidence in the soldiers, as much by his bravery as by his rude and simple manners. Severe towards himself as well as towards others, and gifted with herculean strength, he used to punish every act of disobedience with his own hand, inflicting one unvarying penalty—death. In spite of, perhaps on account of this inflexibility, Clodoald soon became the idol of the city; while he was among them they could not doubt of success. He confounded the Franks with the Germans in the implacable hatred which he had vowed to the latter. Gondomar placed all the forces at his disposal under his command.
The defences of the cité Juliana were just as Philostratus had left them; intact and massive, they defied all attack by main force. To take them a regular siege was necessary. The army of the Frank kings consisted of about forty thousand men when they had laid siege to Autun, and, deducting losses and desertions, it counted scarcely more than thirty-five thousand men on arriving before the city. It was, however, expecting to be reinforced. The body which presented itself on the northern plateau consisted of twenty thousand men, and that which appeared above the lower town of fifteen thousand. The lower town was nearly deserted; all the able-bodied men had taken refuge in the city, and had sent the women, children, and old men to the eastern hills.
The main body of the Franks was therefore able to enter the lower town without striking a blow, and naturally enough, began to pillage it. Clodoald observed from the ramparts the disorder thus occasioned. At nightfall he despatched a thousand men to the place d'armes at the south of the plateau, and reinforced the post that defended the tête de pont on the right bank. The Franks engaged in plundering the town had scarcely taken notice of the large tête de pont placed on the extreme right, but had given special attention to the smaller one opposite the wooden bridge. Towards the third hour of the night Clodoald had the gates opened, and led forth his men in silence. The Franks had scarcely kept a guard at this point. Surprised by Clodoald's attack, they went up again to the lower town, uttering cries of alarm.
Many had encamped between the Emporium[See [Fig. 16].] and the tête de pont; the Burgundians passed round them, and attacking them unawares, drove into the river those who were not massacred. At the same time Clodoald set fire to the whole quarter. The wind was blowing from the south, and the habitations situated on the banks of the river soon presented a mass of flames. When, the Franks having rallied, their forces were on the point of taking the offensive, the Burgundians had already re-entered the tête de pont, and were re-ascending the plateau. The Franks had lost from four to five hundred men in this skirmish, while of the besieged not more than twenty men had been put hors de combat. This commencement brought joy to the city, and those who from the top of the ramparts saw their houses in flames, endured their ill-fortune patiently, thinking of the vengeance they might reasonably anticipate.
Experienced in war as he was, Clodoald would not allow this ardour to cool. On the morning which followed this night so fatal to the Franks, he formed two bodies of two thousand men each, well armed with angons, francisques, and scamasaxes (for throughout Gaul at that time these weapons were common to the Franks, the Gauls, and the Burgundians, with some slight variations). He ordered a body of about five hundred men to issue by the eastern gate of the southern place d'armes, to cross the rivulet, and make a show of intending to pass the river below the stone bridge of the valley, by means of light boats which four men could carry on their shoulders. These boats had been stowed away in the place d'armes. At the same time, one of the two bodies was to assemble in the northern outpost, which had not yet been attacked, and make a vigorous sortie. Clodoald himself, with a body of a thousand men, was to pass the eastern gate of the city, skirt the ramparts and the outpost, and come to sustain the attack and take the enemy in flank. The five hundred men furnished with boats were to limit themselves to such a pretence of crossing over as would be sufficient to attract the Franks to the spot; then the second troop was to pass the great tête de pont and act as the occasion might suggest, either attacking the enemy on the march, if he followed the descent of the river, or keeping back the Franks coming from the lower town. A body of a thousand men were to fall upon the troop presenting itself on the banks of the river, and cut them to pieces or drown them.[see [Fig. 16].]
This plan well explained to his lieutenants, the movement commenced about the fourth hour of the day. The two Frank kings had taken the command: Childebert of the troops encamped on the north, Clotaire of the body encamped on the west in the lower town. A bridge of rafts had been early constructed five hundred paces above the isle of sand, to establish a communication between the two bodies.
It must be observed that after taking Autun, the two chiefs did not expect any serious resistance in the rest of Burgundy. On the strength of the reports that had reached them, they were persuaded that Gondomar had been killed, that the garrison of Autun constituted his best soldiers, and that the other strong towns would be defended, if at all, only by inexperienced men.
The event of the preceding night, however, caused them to reconsider their judgment; and at the moment when the sortie on the north was taking place, the two chiefs were planning to take the tête de pont by a vigorous effort, and at the same time to attack the northern outpost.
The Franks are inclined, even more than the Gauls, to take for truth what they desire to find so; and the two kings were under the persuasion that the garrison within the city was small in number, and would be disconcerted by these two simultaneous attacks. Things were in this position when the Frank chiefs received the news that the line of investment on the north was attacked.
By the term "line of investment" must not be understood a disposition of their forces presenting a complete analogy with the strategic arrangements of modern times. This line consisted of a body of men, one thousand strong, grouped somewhat confusedly behind a barricade of trees and brushwood, four hundred paces from the northern salient. A second body followed, consisting in great part of cavalry, dispersed in the woods at a hundred paces from the first line, and masking the encampment of Childebert, surrounded by the bulk of his troops.
At the first alarm the two kings mounted their horses, and, hurrying along with them those who were equipped for fight, hastened to the field of action. The cavalry of the second line dashed forwards to aid the first, separating into two squadrons to attack the enemy on his flanks.
Recovering from their first surprise, the Franks, protected to some extent by the barricades, were keeping their ground against the attack. A hand-to-hand conflict was commenced, but the Burgundians, as the more numerous, were beginning to outflank the enemy's line, when the Frank cavalry came up, and in their turn fell upon the two wings of the attack. The Burgundians were compelled to give ground, and were obliged to avail themselves of the barricades of branches and brushwood not to be outflanked. Their position, however, was becoming untenable, when Clodoald came up on the enemy's left flank. The Franks were panic-struck, for the troop conducted by Clodoald was marching in good order after the Roman fashion, in echelons, so as not to allow the cavalry to outflank their right wing. The left of the Franks took to flight, and their example was followed in turn by every part of the line. The Burgundians dashed forward in pursuit of them, but Clodoald, advancing to the front, brought his whole force to a stand, though not without difficulty.
The fugitives, on the other hand, found themselves confronted with the main body of Childebert's army. Full of wrath, and upbraiding them with their cowardice, he compelled them to go back; and a body of ten thousand men soon presented themselves in sight of the Burgundians through the woods. The order for retreat was given; and they returned in good order, not re-entering by the outpost, but marching along the east front, under the protection of the ramparts. Childebert's irritation was such that he immediately sent a thousand men to seize upon the outpost, thinking it would be feebly guarded, since the defenders were outside the city; but the attack had been foreseen, and the Franks lost a hundred men in this fruitless attempt.
On the southern side, the sortie of the Burgundians had been more decisively successful. The state of affairs was such as Clodoald had foreseen. The Franks, expecting the enemy to cross the river so as to outflank them on the right, had sent a thousand men to meet the Burgundians. The lieutenant of Clodoald had then sallied out from the great tête de pont with his two thousand warriors. Drawing up half his force in a square, on the river side, with his front towards the lower town and his right supported by the tête de pont, he had dispatched the other half in all haste against the Frank troops on their way to oppose the passage.
This troop, taken in flank and thinned by the darts hurled at them by the Burgundians in their boats, was broken up, and fled in utter confusion. The Franks remaining in the lower town, now learning that Childebert's army was attacked on the north, were uncertain whether they should march towards the southern side to support the troop lower down the river on the right bank, or betake themselves to the bridge of rafts to assist Childebert's army. This indecision rendered the attack on the Burgundians drawn up in square near the great tête de pont inefficient, and permitted the two thousand men who made the sortie to return without serious loss. The sortie on the north encountered more trying fortunes; it had left in the woods more than two hundred dead, and brought home as many wounded.
The Franks had lost in these two conflicts more than six hundred men, without reckoning the wounded. Far from yielding to despondency, however, both chiefs and soldiers were full of rage, believing they should take the city in a few days, and that they had before them a garrison quite disposed to capitulate, so depressed did they suppose the Burgundians to have become by the capture of Autun: in twenty-four hours they had lost more than a thousand men, without having even approached the ramparts.
The wounded Burgundians remaining in their hands were decapitated; and their heads, stuck on long poles, were ranged in a line at a hundred paces from the advanced work. This, however, did not constitute a countervallation sufficient to protect them from the sorties of the besieged. It was therefore decided that the army on the north side should dig a ditch at two hundred paces from the advanced work, which should extend from the river valley to that of the rivulet; the ditch to be about two thousand paces long, and behind this ditch, with the earth dug out and barricades (of branches), an intrenchment was to be raised. They could thus in the first place obviate any attack of the besieged at this point. In the second place, it was resolved to seize the great tête de pont. The only communication with the outside then left to the besieged would be the valley of the rivulet; but this valley was almost impracticable, full as it was of bogs and marshes; so that the inhabitants of the city could attempt nothing on this side. As to assistance from without, it was deemed out of the question then to expect any; in any case, to prevent the besieged from issuing by the eastern gate, a well-guarded work should be raised in front of it; next, to prevent the besieged from getting provisions, the country on the left bank of the river should be devastated. As regarded the aqueduct, it was discovered and cut off.
These measures resolved upon, the besiegers set to work without loss of time. But Clodoald, who had been present at more than one siege, knew by experience that a garrison which had no expectation of help from without, has but one means of safety, viz. to allow the besieger no respite, especially at the commencement of the investment, when the enemy had not yet been able to complete his works and effect a close siege. Without knowing exactly what the army of the Franks had in contemplation, he knew its numerical force, and did not doubt that it commanded the services of some Latin engineers, as such was the case at the siege of Autun. Clodoald therefore divided his troops into eight bodies. The inclosure [See [Fig. 16].] being defended by forty-four towers, eleven hundred and eighty men were required to guard them, reckoning twenty-five men for each of the thirty-six towers of this inclosure, and thirty-five for each of the eight towers of the gates, or seventy men for each gate and its works. The post of each tower, it must be understood, was, in conformity with the military usages of the time, intrusted with the guard of the neighbouring curtain. The guard of the northern outwork required two hundred men; for the place d'armes on the south, and the têtes de pont, five hundred men; to garrison the stronghold (Castellum) one hundred men; to watch the rampart on the north descending from the angle of the city to the river, and to guard its banks, six hundred men. Total for the ordinary guard of the defences, two thousand five hundred and eighty men. He distributed this first body so that the best troops occupied the place d'armes, the têtes de pont and the advanced guard, as well as the front on this side. Clodoald constituted a second body of a thousand men, held in reserve in the middle of the city, to hasten at need to one or several of the points attacked. He had about six thousand men left, which he divided into six bodies of a thousand men each, thus distributed: two in the part of the town situated between the cité and the river, two in the neighbourhood of the northern gate, and two near the eastern gate. These six bodies were to be ready to make a sortie whenever the order was given.
Clodoald retained under his own direct command the thousand men in reserve lodged in the middle of the cité. Then he provided for the wants of the garrison and the inhabitants living within the walls. A great quantity of provisions had been brought into the town by means of requisitions and according to Roman usage. These provisions were stored in the stronghold. The flocks and herds were driven to graze on the slopes of the plateau on the south and east. Timber in considerable quantity had also been laid in store. It was ranged along the interior of the curtain walls. In addition to its walls the town had vast cisterns, supplied by the aqueduct. This being cut off, Clodoald had the rain-water from the roofs collected in channels which led into these cisterns. Moreover, in the part of the town situated between the ramparts and the river there was a fine spring capable of supplying all the upper part of this quarter.
Clodoald looked carefully to the lodging of his troops. Many of the soldiers had their families in the town; he would not allow the defenders to lodge in their houses. He had the public buildings arranged to receive the seven thousand men who did not habitually occupy the ramparts. Those who were charged with the guard were well lodged in the towers, the public buildings of the quarter, or outside the ramparts. Clodoald, as has been said, enjoyed the full confidence of his troops before the arrival of the Franks; but after the successful affairs of the first day, his men considered him as a kind of Providence, and blindly obeyed him. Accordingly, these arrangements were readily accepted and carried into execution. In details he had adopted the composition of the Roman cohort, and every chief of a corps was responsible for the execution of the orders he received under pain of death. As for the inhabitants, they were obliged to lend assistance whenever required; a refusal was capitally punished.
Gondomar, whom we have scarcely had occasion to mention hitherto, inhabited the Castellum; and Clodoald manifested the greatest respect for him, acting as he said only according to his instructions; but for the garrison, the veritable chief was Clodoald.
Having provided for what was most pressing, namely the organization of his force, he had two onagri placed in the outwork the day following the engagements, and these onagri began to hurl stones of sixty pounds weight on the Frank workmen engaged in the contravallation, two hundred paces from the salient, with such effect that the besiegers were forced to put back their fosse fifty paces out of range. The following night, Clodoald sent out a thousand men by the eastern gate, who, defiling by the road along the rampart, went and destroyed the first works of the Franks, and re-entered immediately; at the same time another sortie, effected through the south gate of the great tête de pont, surprised several men of the Frankish outposts. Their heads, fixed on stakes, were placed at the extremity of the northern outwork, as a response to the proceedings of the Franks. That very night, the enemy attempted to cross the river, aided by the islet of sand, in order to attack the ramping curtain on the north from behind; but they were unable to land, the quays being well lined with troops. Many of them were drowned.
Things were proceeding rather unfavourably for the army of the Frank kings; it was accompanied, however, by an able Latin engineer, who had given proofs of his skill, especially at the siege of Autun. Childebert, exasperated by the success of the besieged, poured forth menaces against his own men as well as the enemy. He had not deigned to listen to the advice of his engineer, who since the arrival of the army before Juliana had been urging him to encamp on the north, and not to invest the town till he had reconnoitred its approaches. Consulted after the preliminary checks, Secondinus—that was the name of the Latin engineer—admitted that it was difficult to withdraw, since the army was engaged around the place; that the first thing to be done was to make it impossible for the besieged to make a sortie; and to effect this result—the latter being unable to issue without danger except by the eastern gate, and the têtes de pont—it was necessary to raise works in front of these points of egress, so as to close them completely; that it was hazardous and of little advantage to try to seize the great tête de pont by a direct attack; but that it was necessary to occupy the western quarter below the ramparts, and therefore to cross the river; that then, by the same blow, the têtes de pont and the ramping wall on the north would be lost to the besieged, and the southern place d'armes endangered.
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 tête 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 tête 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.[See [Fig. 16].] 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 tête 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.
Fig. 21.
The enemy's troops were thus disposed around the cité:—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 tête de pont, five hundred; that of the contravallation around the great tête 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.
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 cité; he had therefore strongly barricaded all the roads of the town leading to the quay, and had strengthened the latter with a vallum.
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 space outside.
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 faggots 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 attitude 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 tête 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 tête 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.
Fig 25.
At the same time, shielded 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 faggots, the assailants 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 [See [Fig. 24.]] 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 assailants 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 anticipated 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 passed 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 shielded 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.
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 passed 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 assembled 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 tête de pont had been erected with stakes and débris 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 shores. Their chiefs insisted that the besieged had abandoned this part of the cité, 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. Secondinus shook his head, and persevered in ordering measures of safety. Towards midday one of the Frank chiefs, still more impatient than the rest, called his men together and declared that there had been too long a delay, and that the slopes must be occupied. "Let the brave follow me, and those who are afraid remain here and find themselves sheltering-places!" and he and his followers made for the summit of the plateau. His example was quickly followed, and by various paths through the houses and gardens more than two thousand men ascended the slopes.
Arrived at the vallum formed on the slant, they were received by a shower of stones and darts. But soon recovering the surprise, and urged on by their chiefs, the Franks sprang up the escarpment. Their position, commanded as it was by the besieged, was unfavourable, and the first assault failed. They had to rally in the shelter afforded by the habitations and hedges left by Clodoald outside the vallum. Hearing the shouts of the onslaught, the troops left near the passage hurried in their turn up the hill. Secondinus then judged it expedient to get over a thousand men from among those who had remained in the island, giving excellent reasons for keeping them at that point.
Seeing the reinforcement ascending the hill, the first assailants separated into three large parties, and at the word of command advanced anew against the vallum. The fall of the foremost did not arrest the new comers, who passed over their bodies. There were moments when the intrenchment seemed to be carried, for its ridge was crowned by Frank soldiers; but the defenders—independently of those who guarded the vallum—had also divided into compact bodies, which, in readiness behind, fell on the assaulting columns when their heads appealed above the ridge. Thus the conflict presented a series of captures and recaptures of the vallum, and it appeared as if the same turns of fortune would be repeated as long as the assailants and defenders were able to form bodies of soldiers. Many fell on both sides, for they fought hand to hand.
Then it was that Clodoald, who held the smaller place d'armes on the south-west, led forth a thousand men in good order, keeping along the river; he ordered those who occupied the large place d'armes to pass on between him and the vallum, and to fall on the assailants in flank. From the right shore the Franks perceived this movement of Clodoald, and hurried towards the island to attack him and support those of their party who were on the left shore. But Clodoald had the start, and advanced by a direct road, whereas the enemy had to make a détour. In a few minutes, therefore, he came upon the body of Franks which, at the instance of Secondinus, was guarding the passage. He attacked it most vigorously, and cut down the first he met with. The Franks resisted, however, and, covering the embankment, formed in a square, with their right against the river. Fresh assailants passed over to the embankment, and took up such a position on the left that Clodoald's troop was on the point of being surrounded, and to free itself was obliged to make a movement in retreat, not without much loss—abandoning the left shore in order to reach the slopes and choose more advantageous ground.
The second troop of Burgundians was then advancing on the flank of the besiegers, who were furiously storming the vallum. The assailants, attacked in flank, almost in rear—by reason of the direction of the vallum—gave way and ran down towards the passage, pursued by the Burgundians. Seeing himself thus supported, Clodoald assailed the foe with renewed energy. At that juncture came Gondomar sallying out from the western gate, with fresh troops to reinforce the defenders of the vallum. Seeing the enemy flying in all haste towards the passage, he concluded that his force was strong enough to press them vigorously, and, following the southern ramping wall, and then turning to the left, he attacked the enemy on the shore opposite the island. The Franks, thus attacked in front and on both flanks, with a narrow passage behind, offered a desperate resistance; but their very numbers were unfavourable to success, and they were overwhelmed with missiles hurled by Burgundian slingers posted in the houses on the slope.
When night came not an enemy remained alive on the left shore; many had sought to reach the island by swimming, and a considerable number had also effected their escape by the embankment; but more than two thousand five hundred bodies remained along the vallum and about the entrance of the passage. Clodoald had faggots and straw heaped on the movable bridge, which soon caught fire as well as the stage. The besieged lost a thousand, and Clodoald was wounded.
The Burgundians had kept the western portion of the town, but they could not take the offensive in that quarter, since dense masses of the enemy presented themselves there.
During the same day the Frank kings had made a feint of attacking the north front of the city; but the ramparts and the towers erected on this front could only be taken by a regular siege, and the Burgundian troops assigned to that quarter were more than sufficient to defy a serious attack.
Retired within their tent, Childebert and his brother accused one another of the failure of their operations, but ultimately agreed in throwing on Secondinus the blame of their defeat. The latter, summoned into their presence, had to undergo the bitterest reproaches. "If," replied the engineer, "your troops were disciplined—if they had not persisted in attacking the quarter, on which we had fortunately gained a footing, at haphazard—we should still be on that shore, and should have been able to-morrow to seize the whole of that region; not that I think it necessary to attack the cité on that front, but because we could thus have prevented any sortie, and might without risk attack the northern front and take it—which would only be an affair of time.
"Not being in possession of the western quarter, all our siege works may be destroyed in a vigorous sortie; for the besieged are audacious—they have shown themselves so; and the ramping wall which descends to the river from the west corner will always put our attack on the north front of the cité at the mercy of a vigorous effort.
"This ramping wall has no visible gates, but it will be easy for the besieged to make outlets if there are not already some hidden ones; and then under favour of night he can fall on the right flank of the attack, burn our works, and render the siege much longer and more uncertain in its issue. Each of our chiefs insists on commanding; and, brave though they all are, before a cité so well fortified and defended, blind bravery only involves you in useless perils. Obtain from them, therefore, an implicit obedience to your commands, and remember that your illustrious father owed his victories to the rigorous discipline which he succeeded in maintaining." This firm language did not fail to make an impression on the two kings, who, repressing their anger, began to deliberate coolly on the situation. It was decided to seize the great tête de pont, still in the hands of the besieged; to keep a strict watch on the shores of the river; and to attack the place along the whole extent of the northern front, comprising the ramping wall.
The two kings decided that the chiefs of the various corps should obey Secondinus, whom they intrusted with the direction of their operations. The chiefs were assembled, and received from Childebert's own mouth the order not to engage in any enterprise except such as Secondinus should sanction. But these Franks had no liking for the Roman, as they called him, and received the admonition with a bad grace. Many raised objections, declaring that the slow proceedings of the Roman were the cause of their failures, and that if they might have their way the cité would soon be in their power. Childebert and his brother began to feel their resolution failing at these representations, and looked to Secondinus to reply. Addressing himself then to the chiefs who had accused him, he said: "Let those of you who have a plan of attack to offer, speak; let them explain by what methods they propose to force walls defended by men inured to war and well commanded; and if they can exhibit a plan superior to mine, I am ready to follow them like the humblest of their soldiers. But the kings and the whole army, before being called upon to advance, have a right to demand that their lives be not risked in an enterprise without definite purpose, and not presenting any chance of success." To this speech there was no response. "You, who spoke," said Childebert then to one of the chiefs, "what do you propose?"—"We took Autun by main strength; we invested the cité, made a breach in the wall, and entered it."—"Yes," replied Secondinus; "but Autun is not a cité built on the summit of escarpments like this; we were able to attack it from the level on two of its fronts, without having a river in the rear. Its walls, good though they were, were but ill defended, and our simultaneous attacks on two opposite points disconcerted the besieged. Here there is but a single front that can be attacked from the level; all the others crown escarpments, that could be easily defended, even without walls. Only two courses, then, are possible: either to invest the place so closely as to force it to surrender through want of provisions—which may be a tedious process, for the besieged are well provisioned, and the Frank army, which dislikes inaction, will melt away during such a blockade—or to attack the only vulnerable side, and concentrate all our forces on that point.
"By proceeding regularly, this front will be in our power in three weeks. Then we shall be able to invest the castellum closely, leaving a numerous body to prevent any sortie. It must surrender eventually, and in the meantime the kings will subdue the rest of Burgundy, without being delayed here." Many of the chiefs responded, proposing irrational plans of attack—appearing such, indeed, to the assembly; for though all agreed in blaming the conduct of the siege hitherto, no one could suggest a consistent plan of operation. Every proposition was therefore received with murmurs or ironical laughter. Seeing this, Childebert made a formal declaration that he and his brother were determined that Secondinus should be obeyed in all points, since no one had a desirable plan to propose; and the assembly separated. The two kings, remaining alone with the engineer, urged him to contrive for securing an immediate success that might cause the recent failures to be forgotten and restore confidence to the army.
"The difficulty," replied Secondinus, "is to obtain such a success, without risk, with troops that do not strictly follow orders. What secures success in siege warfare is patience, assiduous labour, and rigid discipline; but your men are not patient, are not fond of digging, and are undisciplined. They prefer getting killed in an assault under unfavourable conditions to the safe, though painful, labour which in the course of some days would secure the capture of the place without much loss."
Meantime the Frank army was reinforced by a body of about two thousand men, sent by Theodoric, who, having terminated his expedition into Auvergne, was reckoning on gaining some advantage from the war going on in Burgundy. These two thousand men were robust, but ill-armed, and little fitted for active war; but they were able to render great services in siege works. They were placed directly under the orders of Secondinus, who set them to work immediately, promising them a large share of the booty when the cité was taken.
Fig. 27.
We have seen that the northern salient had remained in the power of the Franks. Secondinus raised an agger at this point, in front of the gate of the cité; and on the declivity of the plateau another agger opposite and on the counterscarp of the fosse of the ramping wall ([Fig.27]). The ridge of these works did not reach the level of the footway of the cité walls, but yet rose high enough to allow great stones to be discharged on the battlements by means of onagers, and to render the situation perilous to the defenders. The especial object of this was to occupy the besieged. Under shelter of these two earthworks, Secondinus had two mines commenced, one at the point A, the other at B, which, carried under the bottom of the dry ditches, were to penetrate beneath the walls. Clodoald, who had been rather severely wounded, was obliged to confide the superintendence of the defence to his lieutenants, who informed him of the besiegers' operations, and who believed that the Franks were going to raise timber works to command the walls, destroy the battlements, and throw bridges across. Nothing, however, favoured the supposition that such was the intention of the Franks, who limited themselves to furnishing the earthworks with screens to protect their engines. This apparent inactivity was a constant source of anxiety to Clodoald, who knew, through his spies, that the besiegers had received reinforcements. As he was unable to take the lead, he dared not direct his lieutenants to undertake any fresh sorties, and was obliged to content himself with recommending the most scrupulous vigilance. Trusting, moreover, to the solidity of the Roman walls and the rocky site of the plateau, he scarcely believed that mining could be rendered efficient; yet, in anticipation of such a contingency, he ordered that trusty men should be set to listen in the lower stories of the towers, and at the base of the walls opposite the face of attack; then he had platforms prepared behind the rampart to receive six machines, which discharged stones in abundance on the earthworks of the besiegers ([Fig. 28]).
Fig. 28.
The Franks, on their side, were working vigorously at their two mining galleries, not without great difficulty, for they had at several points very hard rock to pierce. The excavated earth was heaped up within the earthwork, and could not be seen by the besieged. Till they reached the fosse the noise of the work could not be heard from the cité; but when the miners had arrived below the fosse, the men on guard in the town heard the sound of pickaxes dully reverberating through the night. Clodoald, informed of this, immediately gave orders to countermine, starting from the interior base of the rampart, and in the direction of the sound. On both sides, therefore, the miners were at work; but this did not prevent the projectile engines from being worked all day by both parties.
In a fortnight the besiegers' tunnels were near enough for the workmen to hear the blows of the pickaxes in the rock. Clodoald was then in a condition to leave his dwelling; he examined what had been done, stopped the work, and listened attentively. He judged that the enemy's miners were digging obliquely under the wall, near the north gate ([Fig. 29]), while the countermine of the besieged followed the direction A B.
Fig. 29.
He thought he also perceived that the enemy's tunnel was on a higher level than his own. This seemed favourable to the plan he was intending to adopt, and with a view to greater safety, he sunk the floor of the countermine-tunnel still lower. On visiting the base of the ramping wall he heard no noise at this point, although his lieutenants said they had heard mining towards the upper third of the wall during the preceding days. The countermine-tunnel was also commenced opposite to the place where they thought they had heard the enemy's miners. Clodoald ordered a suspension of the work till the besiegers' operations were clearly understood.
Next day, on the north front, it became evident that the countermine-tunnel was crossing that of the enemy, for the steps of the pioneers were heard above the ceiling.
Clodoald then had the ceiling shored up along the sides of the tunnel, and ordered that the layers of stone forming the ceiling should be noiselessly removed by levers and crowbars, so as to render it as thin as possible below the point where footsteps had been heard.
When this had been done to the extent of leaving only a very thin layer of rock, Clodoald had dry faggots, resin, tar, and all the inflammable materials that could be got, heaped up in the countermine tunnel; then, promising the most skilful of his miners a large reward on succeeding, he told him to break down this crust, and as soon as he perceived an opening, however small, to set fire to the faggots, retiring towards the entrance.
In fact, a few minutes after the order had been given, the miner appeared at the entrance of the shaft, followed by a thick smoke. He reascended quickly, and this opening was stopped with planks and earth.
From the hole made below the floor of the besiegers' gallery the smoke was rising into the tunnel, and suffocating the miners. They tried to stop up this orifice, but the necessary materials were not at hand; and the flame soon mounted high, as the hole produced a draft. The heat burst the stone to pieces, and the opening was becoming larger. The mining gallery was soon so filled with smoke that it was no longer possible to stay there and some of the miners fell suffocated before they could gain the somewhat distant mouth of the tunnel.
The stir caused among the besiegers beyond the earthwork proved to Clodoald that the operations had been frustrated, and the mine rendered untenable. He then stopped up the entrance to the countermine, and when the smoke was dissipated, he resolved on examining the state of things for himself. The faggots were burning rapidly by reason of the draft, and the flame was roaring through the hole, which was becoming larger and larger. Fresh faggots were thrown on the fire with pitchforks, the limestone was cracking incessantly and falling in large slabs.
Secondinus had heard the counterminers at work, but had not been able to ascertain the direction they were following, as they were excavating under the limestone bed in a clayey sand. He thought the galleries would meet some time or other, and that then there would be a struggle in the tunnel. Anticipating this, he had screens in readiness, hoping thus to remain master of his own gallery, and even to gain possession of the countermine.
The event disconcerted his projects; no further progress was possible there. Along the ramping wall, Secondinus's miners had reached the sand, and were consequently no longer heard. He sent all his workmen, therefore, to this quarter, and had his galleries deeply excavated according to the plan ([Fig. 30]). Thanks to the yielding nature of the soil, this operation was completed the following night. The galleries were well propped and shored with dry wood taken from the houses of the lower town. Faggots smeared with tar were placed among these props, and at dawn were set fire to.
Fig. 30.
Clodoald's anxiety had brought him once more to this front of the defence, when a cracking noise was heard.... A wide piece of the wall, above the oblique intrenchment made by the besieged, immediately split, bent forward, and fell en masse outside into the fosse. Clouds of smoke and dust arose, and the exulting cries of the Franks were heard from the cité.
There was not a moment to lose: weak as he still was from his wound, Clodoald assembled all his men within call, and sent for a reinforcement. With the soldiers—about two hundred in number—who had hastened together at his first summons, he mounted to the summit of the crumbling wall ([Fig. 31]) to meet the assault.
Fig. 31.
When the dust and smoke were somewhat dispersed, he could see the Franks, about two thousand in number, drawn up on the earthwork, prepared to scale the ruins. Happily for the defenders, an engine mounted on the platform of the square tower at the angle of the cité [See B, [Fig. 16].] was quickly turned by those serving it, so as to discharge heavy stones on the van of the attack, killing or wounding many men at every volley; which forced the Franks to retreat until mantelets were brought up. This delay enabled the besieged to assemble on the breach, and to heap up fascines there—for the besiegers on their side were discharging a quantity of stones on this point—and to place planks so as to ascend to the summit of the crumbling wall more readily.
All this occupied but a quarter of an hour, when the Franks ascended the agger once more, protected by the mantelets, threw fascines into the space between the head of the wall and the slope of the agger, and rushed forward resolutely to the assault.
The position of the besieged was disadvantageous, for they had behind them the escarpment produced by the thickness of the fallen wall, and a ground deeply creviced by the fall of the masonry; while this fallen wall gave the besiegers a slope of slight inclination, and of easy access.
Fig. 32.
The assault was vigorous and vigorously met, but the people of the cité had only a thin front to oppose to a compact assaulting column; and towards midday the Franks remained decidedly masters of the breach ([Fig.32.]) Clodoald had died in the fight, and with him more than a thousand Burgundians.
The Franks on their side had sustained heavy loss, and the breach was literally covered with dead bodies. Either from fatigue, or because they feared some surprise, the besiegers allowed the remainder of the enemy's forces to re-enter the cité without pursuing them.
They now possessed all the western part of the town lying between the river and the slopes of the plateau. Outside the cité the Burgundians occupied only the southern place d'armes and the great tête de pont: the smaller place d'armes of the bridge previously burned, being uninclosed on the side of its access, and not united with the ramparts, was evacuated.
The Franks had no personal knowledge of Clodoald, and learned only from prisoners that this brave captain had been killed in the assault. They had his body sought for, and his head, fixed on a long pole, was placed before the north gate. This time the prisoners were spared, and sent as slaves to the royal domains.
The cité Juliana was now shut in on all sides and reduced to its walls, which were able long to defy the attacks of the Franks. But Clodoald's death thoroughly disheartened the besiegers, and the Burgundian king was not energetic enough to replace his skilful lieutenant. On the evening of this unfortunate day, he assembled the chiefs of the defending forces to deliberate on the measures to be adopted. Accustomed to the bold enterprises of Clodoald, they thought themselves sufficiently numerous to attempt a sortie at two points—the southern place d'armes and the eastern gate; they believed that the cité would be destitute of provisions in a few weeks, since they could get no more supplies from without, and they considered that this extremity and the disgraceful surrender that must follow should not be waited for. The sortie from the southern place d'armes was to be supported by a body issuing through the south-west gate.
Thus they could drive back the Franks as far as the wall which they had just passed. The sortie from the eastern gate would occupy them during this time, on the left side of the plateau.
But while they were engaged in these deliberations, Secondinus understood well how to avail himself of the advantage so dearly bought. During the night he had an intrenchment made at some distance from the gate of the place d'armes, caused the road to be intercepted and the slopes of the cité covered with abatis of trees, and thereupon commenced without delay a mining tunnel under the descent from the castle to this place d`armes to destroy the fortified wall.
In the morning, therefore, when the Burgundians were preparing to pass the north gate from the great place d'armes, they saw before them a well-guarded intrenchment, bristling with pointed stakes and intertwined branches of trees. Reckoning, however, on the attack to be made by the body that was to issue by the south-west gate, they advanced resolutely against the intrenchment, whose defenders might thus be taken in the rear. But this contingency had been foreseen by Secondinus; another intrenchment at right angles was already raised before this gate, and the road cut off; the approaches being furnished with barricades. After losing a hundred men, therefore, the two bodies re-entered without having been able to execute their design. Originating power and promptness in execution were henceforth wanting to these brave people, who were, however, determined not to capitulate.
Three days afterwards the descent to the place d'armes was undermined, and part of it fell. The defenders of the post and of the tête de pont were surprised, and had only time to retire in haste by the road ascending to the eastern gate: and some of them fell into the hands of the Franks.
The cité was then completely surrounded within bowshot distance. No sortie could be of any serious use to the besieged; for Secondinus had established posts supported by intrenchments around the ramparts. Seeing the success of his last efforts, the Frank chiefs began to place more confidence in the Latin engineer, and were obedient to his orders.
Then Secondinus resumed his attack on the north front, and began four mining galleries, making use of that which he had been forced to abandon. Three were led under the square tower of the north-west corner [See B, [Fig. 16].] ([Fig. 33]). The besieged soon heard the strokes of the miners' pickaxes, and attempted a countermine, starting from the tower itself, at A; but Clodoald was no longer there to direct the workmen, who, wishing to repeat the manœuvre previously adopted, dug too deep, crossed the enemy's galleries underneath them, and had no clear perception what direction their sapping should take.
The sounds they heard were diffused, and seemed to issue from several points; and, in fact, the Franks were working in more than one direction, and, as Secondinus ordered, immediately under the foundation; sometimes they were digging in the sand, and all noise ceased; sometimes they would meet with rock, and then the blows of the pioneers again became audible.
Fig. 33.
The countermine gallery, therefore, was winding about, and only weakened the basis on which the tower rested; and four days after the commencement of the work, it was supported only by dry props, greased and smeared with pitch. These being set on fire, the tower fell in, bringing down with it a large piece of the north wall. Anticipating this result, King Gondomar, who, after Clodoald's death, took the command in the cité, had ordered an interior retrenchment to be raised, with a strong wooden tower in the middle of the curve, projectile engines being placed behind. He had sufficient time to complete these works after the fall of the tower; for the breach was scarcely practicable, and was stoutly defended. The Franks were two days in getting possession of it and occupying the corner of the cité in front of the retrenchment, not without having lost two or three hundred men.
Secondinus interdicted the advance of the troops, who were eager to storm the retrenchment and take it by main force; and this time he was listened to. He had timber and mantelets brought, and gave orders for the erection, on the very ruins of the angle, of a tower of green wood, which he took care to protect with woollen blankets and fresh hides. The engines of the defenders did not cease to discharge large stones at the workmen, which greatly hindered them and killed many; but the Franks had acquired confidence, and worked incessantly night and day with enthusiastic ardour.
Twice the defenders of the cité endeavoured to sally forth from their retrenchments to drive off the assailants and destroy their works; they met with a warm reception, especially as the Franks could avail themselves of the ruins as a rampart.
On their side projectile engines were hurling stones and darts on the rampart walks of the extremities of the curtains that remained standing, and made it impossible for the defenders to remain there. As soon as anyone showed himself, showers of arrows were aimed at him. These rampart walks were repeatedly furnished with mantelets, which were soon thrown down by the stones from the engines. The wooden tower of the besiegers was rising rapidly, and at the end of the second day overtopped that of the retrenchment. An engine was planted at the top, which incessantly discharged heavy stones on the works of the Burgundians. The latter kept the old countermine gallery on the north front; but they had not been able to extend it, because blocks of stone had been thrown by the besiegers into the connecting opening, and were replaced by others when the besieged ventured to remove them. The enemy's miners were no longer heard on this side. The reason was that Secondinus, having become better acquainted with the nature of the soil, had perceived that by digging deeper he found a stratum of sand easy to work in and carry away. From the old abortive gallery, however, which the besieged could not speedily enter, he had conducted two oblique tunnels, in an inverse direction and at a deep level, descending into the sand, under the foundations of the curtain; one of them, A, gradually rose again obliquely as far as the inner side of the ramparts ([Fig. 34]). He expected in this way to make an entrance into the cité in any case.
Fig. 34.
But a thick bed of limestone prevented the ceiling from being speedily penetrated. The gallery was far enough from that marked B, intended to undermine the curtain wall, not to be destroyed by its fall, and he reckoned on making use of it on occasion.
Five days had been spent in these labours, and on the fifth day—that is to say, the next day after the fall of the square tower of the corner—the curtain near the north gate was undermined for a length of thirty paces. The stays and props were set on fire during the night, and in the morning the curtain sank down into the fosse, separating into two masses. The Franks immediately threw a quantity of fascines into the fosse, brought ladders, and rushed in great numbers on the ruined wall, which still rose about six feet above the interior level of the cité. The Burgundians, taken by surprise, could scarcely offer any resistance to this escalade, and their efforts were at most confined to hindering the assailants from crossing the breach. The position of the defenders was one of the most unfavourable that can be imagined, especially as they had raised no retrenchment at this point. They barricaded themselves, however—making use of the houses, and hurling a quantity of projectiles from the top of the neighbouring tower upon the assailants; and the struggle was prolonged. Then it was that Secondinus sent workmen to destroy the ceiling of the mine gallery, A, which terminated on the inside of the wall. In four hours this was effected, and the besieged saw a large hole on their left. In a few seconds this gaping orifice poured forth a stream of enemies, who spread themselves along the wall, outflanked the defenders, and hurried towards the gate to burst it open.
The guard that defended this gate were massacred, and the doors being smashed with axes and battering-rams, fresh troops were enabled to get into the city. The town was taken, but the conflict was being kept up in the streets and houses. Night came on, and the defenders of the retrenchment, perceiving that the enemy had got round them, had retired in haste towards the interior of the cité.
The Franks no longer gave ear to the orders of their chief, but rushed in small bands into every opening that presented itself, burning, killing, and pillaging; many of them fell in with numerous bodies of the besieged and met their death.
The women, mad with fury, threw tiles, furniture, logs of wood, and stones upon the Franks dispersed in the streets. As most of the houses were of timber, the fire, fanned by a wind from the west, spread rapidly in every direction. Besiegers and besieged fought till they were surrounded with flames. It was a series of isolated struggles, in which the voices of the chiefs on either side were unable to make themselves heard.
Gondomar, with about a thousand men, had taken refuge in the castle; and from the summit of its towers the Burgundian king could see his faithful cité burning, and hear the shouts of the victors and the vanquished approaching nearer and nearer the walls of this last retreat. He had been unwilling to close the gates, that he might gather in the unfortunate defenders; and towards the end of the night these, driven into the southern extremity of the cité by the enemy and the fire, began then to arrive in crowds, many being wounded, and among them women and children. The castle was being filled, and the enemy was approaching; so the bridge was thrown into the fosse and the gates were shut.
Engrossed with pillage, the Franks allowed the day which succeeded this disastrous night to pass by without attempting anything against the castle; and not before evening could the Frank king restore any degree of order in the burning cité.
There were not enough provisions in the castle to feed its numerous occupants for forty hours. This was just what Secondinus anticipated; accordingly he had no difficulty in persuading the Frank king to rest content with investing the stronghold. Gondomar, overwhelmed with grief, and seeing his helplessness, sought death by throwing himself from the top of one of the towers. The fugitives were forced to surrender at discretion, and most of them were carried away into slavery.
The Frank kings destroyed the most important of the defensive works, so as to render the cité Juliana incapable of sustaining a siege. But those Roman works were massive; and two centuries afterwards the remains of the towers and ramparts still presented an imposing mass of ruins. The plateau was then a waste, and the ruins were overgrown with a luxuriant vegetation; only a few shepherds' huts were to be seen in this desolated region. On the western declivity, between the river and the ancient ramparts, extended a poor little town, whose population did not amount to more than twelve or fifteen hundred souls.
CHAPTER IX.
In the year 1180, the valley had again become a fertile and prosperous district. Several villages had arisen along the course of the river; and a town of some importance covered, as in former times, the western slopes of the old cité Juliana, and extended on the opposite shore. This town was then called Saint Julien. How was it that the cité founded by the Emperor Julian the Apostate had changed its appellation of Juliana for that of Saint Julien? We shall not attempt to explain the fact. It will suffice to say, that about the eighth century a legend arose respecting a companion of Lucian, Bishop of Beauvais, named Julian, a native of the Val d'Abonia, who had been martyred with Maximian a short time before his holy bishop. His body, transferred to the place of his birth, had there wrought numerous miracles, and was then resting in the crypt of the church placed under his invocation, and which was the appanage of a rich abbey, situated at the northern extremity of the plateau. On the site in question, therefore, was to be found the city and abbey of Saint Julien, and the castle of Roche-Pont, occupied by the lords of Roche-Pont. As for the valley, it had preserved pretty nearly its old name; it was the Val d'Abonia. Ever since the ninth century the lords of Roche-Pont had been possessors of the vale, the town, the lands contiguous, and the forests stretching northwards on the plateaux; they claimed descent by the female side from the ancient kings of Burgundy, and were rich and powerful. One of their ancestors engaged in a war against King Robert, in the year 1005, and had contributed greatly to the failure of that prince's expedition into Burgundy. On the submission of this province at a later date to the king, the lord of Roche-Pont had made conditions that had notably improved his domain. This lord was the founder of the Clunisian abbey which stood on the north of the plateau; he had endowed it with the uncultivated lands of the rivulet valley. The monks soon made a capital domain of this valley, by taking advantage of the little water-course, which never failed. With the aid of dams they secured very productive pools; waterfalls turned mills, worked forges, and irrigated fair meadows for flocks and herds, and, on the slope of southern aspect, vineyards renowned for their fine produce.
There were occasional misunderstandings between the abbots of Saint Julien and the lords of Roche-Pont. According to their foundation charter, they claimed to be perfectly independent of the lordship of Roche-Pont—indeed, of all superiority but that of Rome—and to have complete suzerainty over the lands they possessed; they refused to render feudal dues to the castle, and on several occasions disputes resulted in acts of violence. Then the abbots appealed to the Duke of Burgundy; men of war interfered in the contest; and, as a matter of course, the vassals had to pay the costs.
One of the abbots, a restless and ambitious man, had presumed to commence fortifying the abbey, and had persisted in doing so in spite of the opposition of the lord of Roche-Pont. The lord had consequently laid waste the abbey domain. The fraternity then appealed to the king of France, who had intervened in the dispute. After much litigation and cost to both sides, it had been decided that the abbey might be surrounded by a wall without towers, and that in the event of a war in which the interests of the suzerain were concerned, the lord of Roche-Pont should garrison the abbey at the expense of the latter.
The retainers of the abbey and those of the lord continued, nevertheless, in a permanent state of antagonism; and not a year passed in which there were not differences to be settled on this score at the court of the duke.
The castle of the lords of Roche-Pont was built on the remains of the castellum of the cité Juliana, and about the year 1182 it was very old and dilapidated.
Anseric de la Roche-Pont was at that time its owner. He was a young man of ardent temperament and ambitious disposition, married to a niece of the Count of Nevers, deceased in 1176—an alliance which had increased his possessions. He bore with impatience his subjection to the Duke of Burgundy, and in endeavouring to shake it off, his first step was to rebuild his old castle, and put it in a condition to defy every attack. Anseric de la Roche-Pont was encouraged in these ideas of independence by one of his uncles, an old seigneur, who, having spent fifteen years of fighting in Syria, had returned, worn out and impoverished, to Burgundy. Anseric had given him an asylum in his declining years, and he soon acquired an influence over the mind of his nephew, and even of his niece. During the long winter evenings, the recital of adventures beyond seas, to which the Baron Guy knew how to give a life-like interest, would inflame the breast of the young lord. Often on such occasions the latter would rise and pace the hall, with sparkling eyes and clenched hands, stung with shame at his own inactivity, and consumed by the desire of some nobler occupation than killing boars, and disputing with monks concerning mill or fishery rights. At such moments the old baron, far from seeking to calm his nephew's ardour, would seek to direct it to a more attainable end than the conquest of towns in Syria. The Baron Guy was a personage of remarkable idiosyncrasy—physically an elderly man, tall and angular, and somewhat bent by the weight of arms: his head, still covered with rough grey locks, square in the crown, exhibiting projecting cheek-bones, and—beneath shaggy eyebrows—eyes of sombre green, deeply sunk in their orbits. His wide mouth with its thin lips showed, when he laughed—which rarely happened—rows of sharp white teeth. When he was relating long stories, seated, his hands on his knees and his head bent down, the light of the wax tapers fell only on his bushy hair, his high cheek-bones, and nose. Sometimes, at exciting passages in the recital, his head would slowly rise and, still in shade, his eyes would send forth flashes which reminded one of distant lightning.
Morally, the Baron Guy is not so easily described. He hated monks—but that is neither here nor there—and adored children; which is proof of a happily constituted disposition. But the baron had seen so much of men and things that it is not to be wondered at that there existed in his mind a shade of scepticism, if such a term can be applied to the désenchantement of a noble at the end of the twelfth century. The baron had, we say, acquired a marked influence over the mind of his nephew; but to Anseric's two children their great-uncle was as indulgent as possible. He was no less complaisant to his niece; she alone could succeed in lighting up that stern visage with a ray of cheerfulness.
The very high and noble dame Jeanne Eleanor de la Roche-Pont was a woman of middle height. When animated, her somewhat oval face reflected a lively intelligence; her eyes of light azure then assumed the hue of the lapis-lazuli, and her complexion, habitually pale, was suffused with a rosy flush. She had a bewitching smile, though her mouth was slightly drooping; her swan-like neck, and the exquisite contour of her figure, lent to all her movements a perfect grace, rendered still more charming by an address and vivacity which was the delight of the old baron.
The baron, therefore, would pass whole hours with his eyes fixed on his niece, as if he wished to study the least gestures of the Lady de la Roche-Pont, and discover the marvellous mechanism in which their grace and beauty originated. High-spirited on occasions, Eleanor was capable of the greatest devotion and absolute self-sacrifice for those dear to her. Her vassals loved her, and used to call her la Gentil-Dame.
It has seemed necessary to describe at some length persons who will play an important part in the course of this narrative. Events were, in fact, more ruled by the individual in feudal times than during any other period. The personal character of a noble exercised a preponderating influence around him for good or evil.
The Baron Guy, worn out, impoverished, and childless, was essentially one of those sensitive spirits, bruised by contact with men and events, which, having lost all elasticity where their own interests are concerned, direct their entire energy and their need of something to which to attach themselves, towards an object apparently distant or fragile. The baron had certainly an affection for his nephew; but as far as he alone was concerned, he would, have contented himself with leaving him to hunt peacefully on his domains, and helping him at need; but for his niece and her two children—handsome boys of five and eight years old respectively—he had a love amounting to adoration, and which formed the chief interest of his life. To him it seemed that for beings so dear in his eyes the castle de la Roche-Pont and its domain were a very pitiful heritage; and we may question whether even the duchy of Burgundy would have appeared to him worthy of their acceptance.
Ambitions of this indirect character, as they may be called, are the most insatiable and tenacious; they are of the kind stimulating to the most daring enterprises, because they are disinterested and irresponsible.
When the Baron Guy spoke of the fortresses built by the Franks in Palestine and Syria, he never failed to enumerate their towers, to describe their lofty walls, their fair and strong defences; and, invariably instituting a comparison between the wonderful fortresses of Margat, Krak, Antarseus, Laodicea, Antioch, Ascalon, Giblet, and many others, and the castle de la Roche-Pont, he exhibited the latter as a mere hovel fit only for serfs to hide their heads in.
When the baron's discourse took this turn—and it frequently did—Anseric's face clouded over. Eleanor looked down, blushed, and went to look for the children.
One evening, as the baron had been complaisantly expatiating on the advantageous site and solid construction of the castle of Krak, which he had seen commenced shortly before his departure from Syria, and which was to exceed in extent and strength the other Christian fortresses, Anseric suddenly interrupted the recital. "Uncle," said he, "the position of the castle de la Roche-Pont appears to me as good as that of the knights beyond sea; and if it is only a question of making more solid towers and higher walls than ours are, the thing is easy:—what do you say to it?" The baron did not raise his head. "Yes," he replied, "but you must resolve upon it." "Well, if I did resolve upon it?" "Perhaps you might, my good nephew; but he who builds a strong castle must expect to see it attacked." "Well, what then?" "Why, you will have to defend it, my good nephew." "And have we not men and ourselves?" "Yes, we shall indeed want men—men accustomed to fighting; and we shall want arms and mangonels; moreover, the work must be done quickly if you would avoid an attack before it is finished; and remember the duke's court is not far off, and he will perhaps be curious to come and see for himself what the Sire de la Roche-Pont is about." "The duke! the duke! what business has the duke to inquire whether I am rebuilding my castle? It is my affair, not his!" "The monks of the abbey, too, they will go and complain to my lord duke (though he shows no great deference for these white, black, or grey habits), and will persuade him that in building a stronger castle your object is to lay hands more readily on the wealth of the Church; whereas the duke prefers to keep the convent treasures for himself." "As to the monks," said Eleanor, "you need be under no anxiety about them; leave the matter in my hands, and I engage that they shall give you no trouble." "Eh! what what will you do, belle amie?" replied Anseric. "Will you let me act as I think best?" "By all means; as you please, belle amie."
It must be observed that Eleanor—as a wife and a lady of high descent—entered into the baron's views, though without letting it appear that she did so; and her most cherished desire was to leave to her firstborn the finest domain in the province. As allied to the house of Nevers, she had no liking for the duke; and the feudal bonds which connected her domain with the duchy of Burgundy were perhaps a greater annoyance to her than to her husband.
Next day Eleanor sent for the abbot, under the pretext of having something of importance to communicate to him. The abbot was a little man of pale complexion, with sharp black eyes, and always elegantly attired, as far as was permitted by the order of Cluny, which in point of costume was then very tolerant. He came to the castle on a handsome mule, richly caparisoned, followed by two monks, also mounted. Wine and sweetmeats were offered them on their arrival, and when the abbot was in Eleanor's presence, she spoke thus to him: "Sir abbot, you are aware in what veneration I hold your sacred abbey, and how much I desire to add something to its splendour; if my lord and myself have not done so hitherto, it is because we have been waiting for a favourable opportunity. My lord and myself are happy that such an opportunity presents itself while you are ruling the abbey, because we have a particular and profound esteem for you personally. While, then, what we propose to do has for its object the securing to ourselves the more especial protection of the holy apostles, Peter and Paul, it is also prompted by consideration for your own virtues and wise administration.
"Our castle is very old and ruinous; my lord is intending to have it repaired; and to draw down upon its walls the benediction of heaven, he thinks of building within its inclosure a handsome chapel, which will be served by your fraternity as you shall direct, and which will consequently be dependent on the abbey. An annual revenue of a hundred livres will be devoted to the maintenance of the chapel, to be raised from our estate of Try. Moreover, your dependency of Vieil-Bois is unsightly and dilapidated; my lord wishes to have it rebuilt, and to assign for its support, which is at present insufficient, twenty-five days' labour in such vineyards of our domain as are near that dependency."
At each of these announcements the abbot bent his head in courteous submission. "Lady," replied he, "the abbey of Saint Julien, founded by one of my lord's ancestors, will be delighted by the new donations you graciously promise. Though it has witnessed with sorrow the differences that have sometimes arisen between the lords of Roche-Pont and its abbots, it has never ceased to address prayers to God, to the Blessed Virgin, and the holy apostles Peter and Paul, for the illustrious house of its founders; and in the words that have proceeded to-day from your gracious mouth, what it will appreciate beyond the announcement of your intended gifts, is the assurance that its privileges and its independence will receive fresh guarantees of that protection which was accorded to it in the past."
"Assuredly," replied Eleanor; "we shall take care that no harm is done you or your vassals; and, the charter we shall give you will expressly mention our desire to respect the immunities of the abbey, and if need be, to enforce that respect on others. Moreover, sir abbot, you are not ignorant that in these unhappy times the property of the Church is not always respected, even by those who ought to defend them. You know the trials the abbey of Vezelay has experienced: it is our intention to shelter the cloister of Saint Julien from these insults; and there is no surer means of protecting your abbey than putting the castle in a state of defence."
On his way back, the abbot asked himself what could be the cause of this new turn in affairs. He re-entered the monastery, however, none the less gratified; and after vespers a Te Deum was sung.
"To-morrow, my dear lord," said Eleanor to her husband, when all met at supper, "you may set about rebuilding your castle; the abbot of Saint Julien will not feel himself aggrieved." "A good fairy has intervened, no doubt," said the Baron Guy; "we are bound to proceed." "By the bodies of the saints!" said Anseric, when he learned the conditions by which the abbot's acquiescence was to be secured, "you propose to build so much for the Church, belle amie, that there will remain nothing for the castle!" "In good sooth," replied the baron, "I am not so very well pleased that these monks should get a footing among us." "Pshaw! we will put the chapel in the bailey;[9] and if we have to defend the castle, the monks will remain outside." "But why, sir uncle, are you always so severe upon the good monks?" "Ah! gentle fairy, if you had seen them, as I have, in lands beyond the sea, you would agree with me that it is the worst breed——" "Come, do not blaspheme, sir uncle; here we are in a Christian land—not among the Saracens."
A few days afterwards, in fact, Anseric set the labourers to work. The burgh and the villages of the domain had to furnish their contingent in men, and in draught cattle and carts; materials were not wanting in the vicinity. Kilns were erected for burning lime, and the forest supplied timber in abundance. Baron Guy, in virtue of his military knowledge, undertook the office of director. He sent secretly for a master of the works—a native of Troyes, whom he had known in Palestine. This person was kindly received at the castle, was well provided for and newly clothed, but carefully watched, lest he should take it into his head to run away. The plans of the new castle were devised by himself and the baron. Use was made of a part of the Roman fortifications which still existed. But the reader must know the position of the buildings then occupying the plateau ([Fig. 35]) to understand what is to follow.
Fig. 35.—The Old Castle de la Roche-Pont.
At A was the castle of la Roche-Pont, erected on the Roman remains, and composed of irregular buildings out of repair; at B the cloister of the abbey; and at C its church: at D the abbot's building.
The monastery was bounded on the west by the ruins of the ancient Roman enclosure, and on the other three sides by battlemented walls, with a few turrets.
At E was the pleasance of the abbey; at F that of the castle.[10] Two fine mills, dependencies of the castle, stood at G; and at H was the pond, filled by the pent water of the stream.
The upper town, built on the western incline of the plateau, contained two parish churches, I and K. A wooden bridge, with mills belonging to the castle, existed at L, another wooden bridge at M, and the Roman stone bridge at N.
On the right bank were several houses with gardens. At O the road along the plateau branched into two—one leading to the entrance of the abbey, the other to that of the castle. At P was a breadth of cultivated land, and at R the forest, which extended in a northerly direction more than two thousand paces. Of the ancient ramping wall of the Romans, S, and of the enclosure, T, there existed only heaps of débris. These remains, overgrown with vegetation, formed, nevertheless, an elevation which it was possible to defend.
This sketch of the general topography premised, we proceed to explain the dispositions adopted in the building of the new castle ([Fig. 36]). [11] At O existed a fosse, which was re-excavated. A barbican stood at A, entered on the left side.
FIG. 36.— THE CASTLE OF LA ROCHE PONT. 12TH CENTURY.
The main entrance of the castle, with its drawbridge, was necessarily placed at B. This gate had to be protected by two towers. Upon a part of the ancient Roman north front, five towers were planned, whose curtains were to join the two ancient towers, Y, which were repaired and re-crowned. A wide space, C, therefore necessarily remained behind this foremost defence. It was the bailey, a fore-court or outer-court, in which were laid out the chapel, E, promised to the abbot; stables, D; and outbuildings, F, upon a Roman ruin. At P was sunk a second fosse for the protection of the castle, whose gateway was disposed at G. A postern gave egress at H. The ancient Roman wall, M, received a new crowning, and three new towers were to add to its strength.
At I were laid the foundations of the donjon—partly on ancient masonry—a donjon defended by a chemise and ditch. The buildings designed for habitation were situated at K, with a chapel at I. At the extremities of the ditch, P, cuttings were contrived in the two Roman curtains, to intercept, if necessary, all communication between the defences of the bailey and those of the castle. This contrivance was also adopted for the two curtains abutting on the donjon.
The baron spent his whole time, ever since the decision come to by his nephew, with the master of the works, Alain of Troyes; while the workmen first called in cleared the ground and levelled the Roman ruins, and quantities of stone, sand, gravel, and timber were brought in, and the ditches and trenches for the foundations were excavated by the forced labour of the tenants.
The baron designed to erect opposite the plateau (the point of attack) a great front, slightly convex, to screen the projections, W. He wished to have a wide barbican in the middle of this front, in which to collect the troops intended for sorties, and to shelter them in case of retreat. He had observed that in all the good defences erected by the Christians in Syria the entrances were so disposed that the assailant was obliged to present his right flank to the defender—with good reason, since the left is protected by the shield or buckler. The position of the gate, C, of the castle had been the subject of considerable study and discussion on the part of the baron and his master of works. The latter wanted to place it parallel with the front, but the baron insisted on its forming a decided angle with the entrance of the bailey. The master of the works urged that the left-hand tower of this gate, G, would then form a projection insufficiently defended, and open to attack; but the baron maintained that if the besiegers endeavoured to attack or mine this tower, they would be commanded obliquely by the tower, R; that by giving sinuosities to this front of the castle all points of the bailey would be commanded; that the principal gate was thus well masked; that nothing more would be needed than to give a considerable thickness to the walls and a greater diameter to the entrance towers; and lastly, if the enemy succeeded in reducing the projecting tower on the right hand, a barricade might still be raised from S to T, and the defence prolonged, with the favourable consideration that if this tower of the salient were thrown down, the other would remain intact and would command the breach.
The postern, H, was also the subject of lengthened consideration on both sides. This postern was necessary to secure the provisioning of the castle without encumbering the main entrance. Placed near the angle tower, U, which the enemy could not attack because of the steep escarpment of the plateau, the postern was well protected by that tower; moreover it was to be surmounted by a quadrangular work with double portcullis and double doors; lastly, a braie,[12] X, defended its approach. It was agreed, moreover, that the great central habitable part of the castle, erected on the remains of the square Roman towers, should be crenelated, and should command the curtain, and consequently the two entrances. Wells existed or were sunk at p.
Every part having been thus carefully determined, the works were vigorously prosecuted. The baron was always at hand, and persisted in seeing everything for himself. The north front of the bailey, and the chapel, E, were first begun. This exterior work did not greatly alter the appearance of things; but the donjon was next commenced. And when this tower, whose diameter was ninety feet, had reached an elevation of thirty, its aspect had become formidable. The townspeople viewed from a distance this huge mass rising on the point of the plateau, and began to wonder what their lord was intending to do with such an enormous tower. The abbot was somewhat disquieted; but he was so handsomely entertained at the castle that he gave no sign of dissatisfaction, especially as the great chapel of the bailey promised to be very beautiful.
Fortunately for Anseric, the Duke of Burgundy had at that time some rather important matters in hand—a misunderstanding with the King of France. Philip Augustus gave him considerable uneasiness, and at such a time he did not wish to alienate his nobility. More than two years thus passed without anything of serious consequence occurring to the lord of the castle. By that time the building was very nearly finished. We give a bird's-eye view of it ([Fig. 37]), taken from the north-east angle.
Fig. 37.—Bird's-eye View of the Castle of la Roche-Pont.
Nothing was talked of throughout the province but the beauty and strength of the new castle of Roche-Pont, and there were men of family in the neighbourhood, envious of the wealth and connections of Anseric, who did their best to represent him to the duke as an ambitious person, impatient of the feudal ties which bound him to his suzerain. It was even insinuated that the Sieur de la Roche-Pont, on the strength of his descent, aimed at nothing less than supplanting the duke; and that he had already begun to intrigue for that object with the king of France and with Pierre de Courtenai, who had married Agnes, sister of the last Count of Nevers and aunt of Eleanor; that his tenants were crushed under the burden of forced labours; and that the duke ought not to allow one of his vassals to oppress the poor people thus, in order to erect a castle surpassed in strength by none in Burgundy.
As only too frequently happens, malevolence was thus suggesting to Anseric the course he should pursue to fulfil his ambitious designs.
The Duke of Burgundy (Hugh III.) was anything but a protector of ecclesiastical property. The abbot of Saint Julien knew this; so that, although he was troubled in mind by the defensive preparations of the lord of Roche-Pont, and augured no good to the abbey from the vicinity of so strong a castle, he did not dare to manifest his fears, or endeavour to communicate them to the ducal court; for he was perhaps more afraid of the duke's intervention than of the power of his immediate neighbour.
At length Hugh was moved, and lent an ear to all that was reported concerning the character and intentions of his vassal. An opportunity soon offered of revealing his real intentions. While Anseric had enemies and enviers at the ducal court, he had also some friends; and they did not fail to inform him of the sinister impressions produced in the duke's mind respecting him, and which he took no trouble to conceal. He had been heard to say that he would soon go and try whether the fortress of La Roche-Pont was as strong as was asserted. Prudence was not the duke's forte, any more than reticence. He had sent a body of his men-at-arms to examine matters closely. Now, the duke's men-at-arms had acquired the habits of their master; they were great robbers and plunderers. Whether they acquitted themselves of their mission I cannot say; but certain it is that they plundered some hamlets and set fire to several granges belonging to the abbey of Saint Julien.
The monks were greatly disquieted, and did not fail to complain to the lord of Roche-Pont.
The fief of Roche-Pont lay under the obligation to send every year to the Duke of Burgundy, as its feudal dues, six war horses caparisoned. It was the custom of the lord of Roche-Pont on this occasion to present himself at the ducal court after Easter. The current year was 1185. Anseric did not appear at court, and did not send the six horses. Hugh demanded them; Anseric replied that the duke's men, plunderers and brigands as they were, had themselves taken off the horses that were destined for him; and that it was their place to give them up to their master; that as for himself and the abbot of Saint Julien, they claimed compensation for damages, and demanded that the plunderers should be hanged on the public gallows. Moreover, that he, Anseric, was aware that the Duke of Burgundy lent an ear to the malevolent insinuations of the enemies of Roche-Pont, and he would choose his own time for giving them the lie.
At this haughty answer Hugh's anger was roused, and he swore that he would take no rest till the castle of Roche-Pont was razed to the ground, should it cost him a fourth of his dukedom.
Baron Guy had observed the storm increasing not without a secret joy; but though he liked fighting, and cherished an unbounded ambition, he was a prudent man, and one who—like all who had long sojourned in the East—knew how to intrigue and to secure the favour of circumstances. Most of those old knights of Syria joined the character of the diplomatist to that of soldier, in consequence of their relations with the court of Constantinople and the Saracens.
After Anseric's reply, there was no alternative but to prepare for war, and war à outrance. But, however strong the place might be, Baron Guy knew well that every besieged fortress must, in the end, fall into the besieger's hands, if it is not relieved. Anseric had no army to bring into the open field against the duke's; he could assemble two hundred and fifty men-at-arms-which would imply a total of about twelve hundred fighting men, as each man-at-arms was accompanied by three or four fighting men. Adding to this body the men in the town who owed service to the lord, a garrison of fifteen to eighteen hundred men might be reckoned upon.
Baron Guy had therefore a long conference with Eleanor and Anseric the evening after the answer had been sent to the duke; when it was resolved that the Lady de la Roche-Pont, with a sufficient retinue, should repair to the court of the king of France, promising him liege-homage for the lordship of Roche-Pont; and asking help from him against the Duke of Burgundy, who was devastating the lands of his vassal, and plundering the estates of the abbey of Saint Julien without cause or reason. Baron Guy had some motives for believing that these overtures would be favourably received; but he refrained from saying all he knew about the matter. He advised his niece to take the abbot in her train, if possible, or, at any rate, some of the fraternity, authorised by him.
Dame Eleanor undertook the commission without making the least objection, and, with apparent calmness, though her heart was ready to burst under her slender corset.
She employed the night with her women in making preparations for her journey, and early in the morning sent for the abbot. The abbot, who foresaw but too clearly—whatever might happen—the devastation of the abbey domains, gave vent to repeated sighs, protested, and denounced the barbarity of the times, but came to no resolution. "Sir abbot," said Eleanor to him, at length, "with or without you or your monks I am going to set out this morning; would you rather plead your cause yourself, or have it pleaded by a woman?" "Ah! most gracious lady," replied the abbot, "can I quit my flock when the wolf is preparing to devour it?" "Well, then, give me three of your monks." "Yes, you are right—it must be—it must be." "Let them be here on horseback in an hour." "Yes, noble lady, they shall be here, under the protection of God and the Holy Virgin!" "But, before all things, sir abbot, not a word about this journey, and do not let the brotherhood know where I am taking them." "Yes, certainly; the fraternity are to understand that they are sent to some dependency or some neighbouring abbey." "Very good, but make haste!" Dame Eleanor, weeping, embraced her children, her husband and uncle; but, drying her tears as she mounted her palfrey, she presented herself to her small retinue with a calm countenance. "Fair niece," said Baron Guy to her, just as she was waiting on the horse-block, "the duke will certainly do his utmost to be here as quickly as he can. He might possibly arrive before your return. If it should be so, proceed with caution, conceal yourself and your train at the vavasor's,—Pierre Landry's—two leagues hence, in the valley; he will be informed of your intention, look out for your return, and give me news of you. Then we shall see what can be done."
The Lady de la Roche-Pont's train consisted of a dozen trusty men, retainers of the castle, commanded by a veteran knight of prudence and experience, with two women and the three monks. The party was supposed by the servants at the castle, to be making a visit to the Lady de Courtenai, Eleanor's aunt.