542 APPENDIX. 



only the fatal stones and cruel missiles which fly in the air like dense swarms 

 of bees ; the sky itself between the tower and the clouds is obscured by them. 

 Loud cries are heard, and everywhere reigns the greatest fear, amid terrible 

 noises. Some attack, others resist : and the Northmen, clashing their arms, 

 add to the already cruel horrors of battle. No child of earth has ever laid eyes 

 upon so many warriors on foot, armed with swords, moving in a single body, 

 under a painted testudo ! of such immense size. The Danes made of this 

 testudo a roof which sheltered them ; but none dared to raise his head above 

 its protection, though beneath it their weapons caused a (rightful slaughter. . . . 

 The fierce nation approached the desolated tower, under the cover of their 

 large bucklers made of wood and the skins of freshly killed bulls ; some pass 

 the night under arms, others sleep, others scour the roads, shooting their 

 feathered arrows, from which is dropped poison." 



[A two days' attack followed, but without success ; they tried in 

 vain to fill up the moat around the walls, throwing into it earth, 

 trees, leaves, grass, shrubs, slaughtered animals, and even human 

 beings, their captives.] 



" Their ill-omened ranks tried in vain to fill up even a single ditch, or to 

 prostrate the tower by their battering ranis. Furious at being unable to get 

 at us in open field, the Northmen take three of their highest vessels, quickly 

 fill them with whole trees with all their leaves on, and set fire to them." 



January 31, 886. " The east wind gently moves these ships vomiting 

 flame, and with ropes they drag them along the banks to destroy the bridge 

 and burn the tower ; from the wood which fills them burst out burning flames." 



[Then the whole populace call upon their patron saint, St. 

 Germain, and implore him to save them. The enemy's vessels get 

 aground upon a large mass of stones heaped up to render the 

 bridge firm ; no harm is done to it, and the besieged rush out, and 

 sink the vessels in the river Seine. Thus ended the combat for 

 that day, and the night was quietly passed.] 



February 1, 886. " Next day the Danes secretly carry to their camp the 

 large bucklers which formed their testudo ; they abandon two of their rams, 

 vulgarly called carcamuses, which they feared to carry away ; and our men 

 took possession of them, and joyfully broke them in pieces. Sigefroy, the 

 king, by whom it was feared the gates of our tower would have been burst in, 

 then led away all his Danes. 



" The third day of this battle was that of the ' Purification of the Virgin.' 

 Nevertheless, the fatal cohorts of the Northmen went on board their vessels, 

 swifter than birds, and directed their course to the eastern lands, then subject 

 to the rule of Sad Austrasia, and which had hitherto not suffered from the 

 enemy's ravages." 



1 The testudo of the Roman armies, in 

 which the warriors' shields are inter- 

 locked like the scales of a tortoise, form- 



ing a protecting roof for the undermining 

 or attacking of walls. 



