"That is lesson number one," he said. "They will be more prudent
next time."
The peasants, after holding a tumultuous council, scattered, most
of them making for a wood a short distance off.
"They are going to cut down a tree and use it as a battering ram,"
Malcolm observed. "They know that these large stones are too heavy
for us to cast many paces from the foot of the wall. We must get
to work and break some of them up. That will not be difficult, for
the wind and weather have rotted many of them half through."
The stones were for the most part from two to three feet long and
nine or ten inches square. Two were laid down on the platform some
eighteen inches apart and another placed across them. The four men
then lifted another stone, and holding it perpendicularly brought
it down with all their strength upon the unsupported centre of
the stone, which broke in half at once. To break it again required
greater efforts, but it yielded to the blows. Other stones were
similarly treated, until a large pile was formed of blocks of some
ten inches each way, besides a number of smaller fragments.
In half an hour the peasants reappeared with a slight well grown
tree some forty feet long which had been robbed of its branches.
It was laid down about fifty yards from the church, and then twenty
men lifted it near the butt and advanced to use it as a battering
ram, with the small end forward; but before they were near enough
to touch the door the bearers were arrested by a cry from the crowd
as the defenders appeared on the tower, and poising their blocks
of stone above their heads, hurled them down.
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