Tolliday was equal to this, however. He pretended that one of the
screws of his fiddle had swelled, so that it would not turn freely
in the hole, and he got us to ask one of the soldiers to lend him
his tinder box, so that he might make a fire of shavings and heat a
skewer red hot, with which to burn away the hole. All unsuspicious,
the man lent him the box, which, when it was returned to him had
somewhat less tinder in it than before.
That night, and during the remaining weeks of our work, we had a
candle. We screened the light very carefully, you may be sure, so
that it should not shine through the grating in the wall on the
courtyard, and attract the soldiers' notice.
The stone having been removed, I crawled into the opening, holding
the candle, and could scarcely check a cry of joy as I perceived
that our task would henceforth be much lighter than I had supposed.
At the end of the hole, instead of another stone cemented like the
first, as I expected, there was a mass of rubble. I could not doubt
that the whole of the interior of the wall consisted of this
material, and that we should encounter no more blocks of stone
until we came to the outer layer of the wall.
It was easy to understand now why castles deemed impregnable were
sometimes battered down. A thickness of ten feet of stone might
withstand any bombardment, but once the outer stones were pierced,
the lighter material would offer but little resistance to cannon
shot.
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