At that time the gateways were the only part of the fortifications
made of stone. The ramparts were of earth, planted on the exterior
slope with a thick mass of thorn-bushes, interlaced and strengthened
by posts. Outside there were more defences of wooden stockades,
and beyond them two ditches, divided by a dyke, on which was a
palisade of pointed stakes. The town, thus fortified, was defended
by about 10,000 men, and un June 8, 1383, the siege was begun by
a force consisting of 17,000 English and 20,000 Flemings of the
national party, most of whom came from Bruges and Ghent.
The English had been told that the town would not offer a strong
resistance, and on the first day of the siege 1,000 of them tried
to carry it at once by assault. They were repulsed; and after that
assaults by the besiegers and sorties by the garrison continued
day after day, the loss of life on both sides being very great.
At last the besiegers, finding that they could not, in the face of
the shower of arrows, javelins, and stones which met them, break
through the palisades and the sharp thorn fences (those predecessors
of the barbed-wire entanglements of to-day), force the gates, or
carry the ramparts, built three wooden towers mounted on wheels,
and pushed them full of soldiers up to the gates.
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