BROIEFORT, THE BLACK ARABIAN 1 59 



IV. THE SIEGE 



There were only three hundred men — vassals 

 of Ogier — in the castle, but the most of them were 

 known to be good and true, and the Dane felt that, 

 for a time at least, he was safe from any harm 

 that the besiegers could do him. Broiefort was 

 given a warm stall, with plenty of straw, in the 

 cellar, and as there was a great store of pro- 

 visions in the castle, the inmates were all as com- 

 fortable as need be. Ogier knew that no power 

 on earth could batter down the walls of the castle, 

 for they were of Saracen work, — that is, the 

 mortar had been boiled in blood, — and hence they 

 were proof against every kind of weapon. All 

 that the garrison had to do, therefore, was to 

 prevent the besiegers from putting up scaling- 

 ladders, and this required only a little watchful- 

 ness. 



At length, however, Charlemagne caused a 

 wooden tower to be built in front of the gate — a 

 tower seven stories high, on which a thousand 

 knights and a hundred and seventy archers could 

 stand, and from which they hurled missiles and 

 shot countless arrows over the castle wall. Then, 



