ushes to the assault. The engines of war
are all put in motion at the same moment. Bands of men, under cover of
their upraised shields, drag the rams close to the wall. With these
battering-rams they hammer at the wall, while stones and arrows hurtle
down on their steel roof. Other companies rush intrepidly forward with
long scaling-ladders, and strive to hook them to the top of the wall.
The Saracens, with equal energy and courage, labor to cast them down. If
perchance a ladder be fixed, men swarm up, undaunted by the weapons
hurled at them. Scores, struck dead or wounded, loosen their hold and
fall to the ground; but as many more clamber over their dead bodies and
spring to their places. If a knight but reach the top of the ladder, he
is cut down by the scimitars of the Egyptians.

Huge stones, showers of sharp flints, and heavy beams cast from
mangonels and catapults, fly through the air in every direction,
crushing Saracens or Christians. The great towers, alive with soldiers,
roll forward nearer and nearer to the city wall, though its defenders
fight desperately to stay the advance of the dreaded machines,--casting
blazing arrows and balls of fire against the towers, aiming countless
weapons at the Christians upon them. Women and children mingle in the
fray, bringing missiles for the machines, or food and water for the
soldiers. They lay hold on the towers and help to drag them forward.

On the tallest tower, high above all, stands Godfrey, fighting
furiously, and urging his men to yet more heroic efforts. Above all
tumult--shouts of defiance and cries of triumph, shrieks of mortal
anguish, din and clatter of arms, and hissing of arrows--rings out his
battle-cry: "Christ and the Holy Sepulchre! God wills it!"

Now Christians raise a shout of joy as they gain the wall; now infidels
howl in derision as the besiegers are driven back. Through the smoke and
flame and flying weapons the horrified Crusaders behold two hideous
witches on the highest rampart. Their hair and garments stream in the
wind. With horrid curses and impious cries, they call upon the demons of
earth and air to smite the Crusaders. But their sorcery does not avail
to save themselves from death; pierced by countless Christian arrows,
they fall headlong from the battlements. With wilder zeal the exultant
Crusaders battle, and with greater fury the enraged infidels.

Hours pass. The tower of Raymond is set on fire, and the long flames
shoot up to hea