As for their machines, they cannot have many of them."
"They had something like a score of waggons with them, Tom; these would
carry the beams for half a dozen big ballistas; besides, they have their
cannon."
"I don't make much account of the cannon," the archer said; "they take
pretty nearly an hour to load and fire them, and at that rate, however
hard a shot may hit, it would be some time before they wrought much damage
on the walls. It is the sound more than the danger that makes men afraid
of the things, and, for my part, I would not take the trouble of dragging
them about. They are all very well on the walls of a castle, though I see
not that even there they are of great advantage over the old machines. It
is true that they shoot further, but that is of no great use. It is when
the enemy come to attack that you want to kill them, and at fifty yards I
would kill more men with my shafts in ten minutes than a cannon would do
with a week's firing. I wonder they trouble to carry them about with them,
save that folks are not accustomed to their noise yet, and might open
their gates when they see them, while they would make a stout defence if
they had only ballistas and mangonels to deal with. I suppose when they
have got the shelters close to the moat they will bring up planks to throw
across."
"Yes, no doubt they will try that, Tom; but the moat is over wide for
planks, and I think it more likely that they will have provided themselves
with sacks, and filled them with earth, so as to make a passage across
with them.
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