THE KING'S MIRROR 



he will have to try another engine, namely the iron- 

 headed ram,* for very few stone walls can withstand 

 its attack. If this engine fails to batter down or shake 

 the wall, it may be advisable to set the cat f to work. 

 A tower raised on wheels J is useful in besieging castles, 

 if it is constructed so that it rises above the wall which 

 is to be stormed, even though the difference in height 

 be only seven ells; but the higher it is, the more effective 

 it will be in attacking another tower. Scaling ladders on 

 wheels which may be moved backward and forward are 

 also useful for this purpose, if they are boarded up un- 

 derneath and have good ropes on both sides. And we 

 may say briefly about this craft, that in besieging castles 

 use will be found for all sorts of military engines. But 

 whoever wishes to join in this must be sure that he 

 knows precisely even to the very hour when he shall 

 have need for each device. 



Those who have to defend a castle may also make use 

 of these weapons which I have now enumerated and 

 many more: trebuckets both large and small, hand 

 slings and staff slings. They will find crossbows and 

 other bows, too, very effective, as well as every other 



* The ram was a massive beam used to batter down walls; it was an in- 

 heritance from antiquity and was much in use. See Oman, Art of War, 132; 

 Aarboger for nordisk Oldkyndighed, 1867, 104; Falk, Altnordische Waffen- 

 kunde, 198. 



f Grafsvin. Falk translates this with " badger " and seems to believe that it 

 was a shelter on wheels under which the attackers might work in compara- 

 tive safety. Altnordische Waffenkunde, 196. It is more likely, however, that a 

 "cat" is meant. The cat was a long pointed pole used to loosen the stones in 

 a wall and thus to make a breach. It is also called a " sow " and the Old Norse 

 term grafsvin, " digging boar," was evidently an attempt to translate the 

 Latin term scrofa or sus, " hog " or " sow." For a description of the cat, see 

 Oman, Art of War, 132. 

 t On the subject of the movable tower see Oman, Art of War, 134-135, 549. 



