red, by the Huguenots on
the wall, by one of defiance. In half an hour the assailants again
formed up. The strongest column advanced towards the great gate,
others against the posterns; and four separate bodies, with planks
and ladders, moved forward to bridge the moat and to attack at
other points.

The defenders on the walls and at the windows were soon at work,
and the assailants suffered heavily from the fire, as they
advanced. The fifty men-at-arms behind the barricade remained quiet
and silent, a dozen of them with arquebuses lining the barricade.
With loud shouts the Catholics came on, deeming the chateau as good
as won. The arquebusiers poured their fire into them as they
crossed the moat, and then fell back behind their comrades, who
were armed with pike and sword.

As they passed through the still smoking gateway the assailants saw
the barricade in front of them, but this did not appear formidable
and, led by a number of gentlemen in complete armour, they rushed
forward.

For a moment those in front recoiled, as they reached the wall of
slippery hides; then, pressed forward from behind, they made
desperate attempts to climb it. It would have been as easy to try
to mount a wall of ice. Their hands and feet alike failed to obtain
a hold, and from above the defenders, with pike and sword, thrust
and cut at them; while the arquebusiers, as fast as possible,
discharged their pieces into the crowd, loaded each time with three
or four balls.

For half an hour the efforts to force the barricade continued. So
many had fallen that the wall was now no higher than their waist;
but even this could not be surmounted, in face of the double line
of pikemen; and at last the assailants fell back, baffled.

At the two posterns, they had failed to make any impression upon
the carcasses that blocked their way. In vain they strove, by
striking the curved points of their halberts into the carcasses, to
drag them from their place; but the pressure of the weight above,
and of the interior line of carcasses that were piled on the legs
of the outside tiers, prevented the enemy from moving them in the
slightest degree. While so engaged, those at work were exposed to
the boiling water poured from above; and the soldiers standing
behind, in readiness to advance when the entrance was won, were
also exposed to the fire of the defenders.

The assaults on the walls, and at the windows, were far less
obstinate than those in the previo