THE CASTLE OF ROCHE-CLERMAUD.
In a little while they came near the Castle. The great, gloomy building seemed deserted. Not a face was to be seen either from window or turret. Riding alone to the front of it, Gargantua shouted out at the top of his voice to those inside:—
"Are you there, or are you not? If you are there, don't stay! If you are not there, I shall have all this trouble for nothing."
All the answer a bold cannoneer, who had not been seen, and who was watching behind the ramparts, gave, was, after taking aim point-blank, to fire his cannon off, the ball furiously striking Gargantua on the right temple, but for all that not hurting him in the least.
CANNONADING GARGANTUA.
"What is that?" he shouted. "How, are those fellows throwing grape-seeds at us? If they are, the harvest will cost them dear," thinking that the balls were only grape-seeds.
On hearing his words—they could have been heard a mile off—those in the Castle rushed pell-mell to the towers and ramparts, and fired more than nine thousand and twenty-five shots from their falcons and arquebuses, aiming each shot straight at Gargantua's head, which towered high above the ramparts. The guns were well pointed, and the balls hit the Giant so often that they began to bother him.
"Look here, Ponocrates, my friend," he called to Ponocrates, who had just come up; "these flies are blinding my eyes! Jump down, please, and get me the biggest branch you can find to drive them away."