Annals of a Fortress

by Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

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.