Annals of a Fortress

by Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

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.