As he shook the walls with the battering-rams and sheared off the parapet by scythe blades fixed on long poles the defenders were dismayed at the sight and at the terrific noise of the blows delivered by the rams, but when they saw that the walls were still standing, their courage revived and they hammered the rams by means of swing beams with heavy masses of lead, large stones and stout beams of wood; they dragged with iron grapples the poles with the scythe blades inside the walls and broke off the blades.
