It is evident that they intend, in the first
place, to assault the postern, and have brought the faggots to fill up the
ditch."
Then he turned to the gunners at the cannon.
"Lay your pieces so as to bear on them when they come half-way down the
hill," he said, "and shoot when they are fairly in the line of fire. Take
the same orders, Guy, to the men working the ballistas and mangonels on
the wall. Tell them not to loose their machines until after the guns are
fired. If the fellows take to flight, tell them not to waste their
missiles; if they advance, let them be sure that they are well within
range before they shoot."
With loud shouts the enemy came down the slope. When they were half-way
down the two guns roared out, and their shot ploughed two lanes in the
crowded body. There was a movement of retreat, but the three knights and
several others threw themselves in front, waving their swords and
shouting, and the Orleanists rallied and moved forward, but at a much
slower pace than before. They had gone but a short distance when the
arrows of the archers in the outwork and the bolts of the cross-bows
worked by the men-at-arms there, began to fall among them. So true was the
aim of the archers that scarce a shaft was wasted. At the distance at
which they were shooting they did not aim at the knights, whose vizors and
coats of mail could not have been pierced, but shot at the commonalty,
whose faces and throats were for the most part unprotected.
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