Suger’s detailed account of the attack made by Louis VI. upon the castle of Le Puiset in 1111 may be taken as a fair description of the methods employed by the besiegers and defenders of an ordinary castle of earthwork and timber. The king brought numerous _ballistae_ to the attack, but we have no indication as to their precise nature: the main weapons employed were the bow, sword, and shield. The besieged came out of the castle to meet the king; but, amid a hail of arrows from both sides, were driven back through the main gateway, which was possibly, as at Tickhill,[76] the only stone defence of the enclosure. From the rampart of their stronghold, they hurled down wooden planks and stakes upon the king’s knights. The besiegers, throwing away their broken shields, made use of the missiles to protect themselves and force the gateway. Carts laden with dry wood smeared with fat were brought up to the doors, and a struggle took place, the royalists trying to set the wood on fire, the defenders trying to put the fire out. Meanwhile Theobald of Chartres made an attack on the castle from another quarter, attempting to climb the steep scarp of the bailey. His followers, however, were too hasty: many fell back into the ditch, while others were surprised and killed by horsemen of the enemy, who galloped round the defences of the castle to keep out intruders. The royalists had almost given up hope, when a priest, bare-headed and holding before him a piece of wood as an extemporised mantlet, reached the palisade, and began to tear away the planks which covered the spaces between the uprights. He was soon joined by others, who cut away the palisade with axes and iron tools. The royal army poured into the castle, and the defenders, taken between the entering force and Theobald’s men, retired into the timber tower on the mount, but surrendered in fear. The king burned the castle, but spared the donjon.[77]
The assault upon a stone castle or walled town was conducted by direct attempts upon the walls themselves, for which movable machines were necessary, and by throwing stones or inflammable materials into the besieged enclosure from stationary machines. The chief engine used directly against the walls was the battering-ram, an enormous pole, furnished with an iron head. Hung by chains within a wooden framework placed on wheels, it was brought up to the wall, and driven against it again and again. The men who worked the ram were protected by a pent-house with a rounded or gabled top, called the “tortoise” (_testudo_), which covered the machine and its framework. The roof of the “tortoise” was made very solidly, to resist missiles thrown from the ramparts, and the whole was covered with raw hides or some other incombustible material, as a precaution against fire thrown by the defenders (69).[78]