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.