Reluctantly, the maiden obeyed; and the wounded archers were taken below so that their hurts could receive attention, while the survivors would be less encumbered on the narrow extent of the roof.
"Stand to it once more!" shouted their leader. "They come again! Now, Will, be ready with the molten lead and the boiling water!"
Assailed on three sides at once, the defenders were hard put to it to keep the attackers in check. In addition to the showers of arrows and stones, the enemy had gained a lodgment on the town wall, and two long ladders were placed against the tower, their ends resting or projecting above the battlements. Up swarmed a number of heavily-armed men, till the ladders creaked and groaned under their weight. Harassed by the hail of missiles, and impeded by the curtains of bulls' hides, the defenders could not repel the assault, and, to their consternation, the leaders of the attack appeared above the battlements.
Once the mailed warriors gained the roof, all would be lost! But at the critical moment Richard Wyatt, seizing a massive crowbar, loosened a heavy coping-stone. Then, calling a couple of strong archers to his aid, the ponderous stone was deftly toppled over the battlements. Missing the first man, the stone hurled the next two from their swaying foothold, then, crashing through the woodwork of the ladder, it fell upon the heads of the men who were supporting those who had already ascended.
The ladder cracked and broke, bringing down the other ladder in its fall, the fragments descending in opposite directions athwart the wall, where a ghastly litter of woodwork and mangled corpses marked the failure of the enterprise.
The man who had first gained the edge of the parapet, feeling the ladder give beneath him, sprang for the roof; but, encumbered by his heavy armour, he slipped, and, clinging only by his mailed gauntlets, he hung dangling over the abyss.
Through the bars of his visor the defenders could see his eyes starting from his head in his terror. But it was no time for pity. With gibes and fierce jests the Englishmen watched his desperate struggles, till, his fingers growing numb with the strain, he relaxed his hold and fell, with a hoarse cry, to join the crushed and mangled bodies of his comrades.
Carried away by his enthusiasm, old Richard tore aside side the curtain of hides, and stood upon the parapet to view the scene of his triumph; but his imprudence cost him dear, fora crossbow bolt struck him in the side, and he fell backwards into the arms of two of the archers.
"Lay me down," he cried feebly. "I am done for at last!" Presently he added, "Send Raymond to me."
Quickly the young archer came and knelt beside the dying soldier, across whose eyes a misty film was already beginning to gather.