water was so swollen that all the forces the enemy
had there were with great horror drowned, except some
who had taken the way on the left hand towards the
hills. Gargantua, being come to the place of
the wood of Vede, was informed by Eudemon that there
was some remainder of the enemy within the castle,
which to know, Gargantua cried out as loud as he was
able, Are you there, or are you not there? If
you be there, be there no more; and if you are not
there, I have no more to say. But a ruffian gunner,
whose charge was to attend the portcullis over the
gate, let fly a cannon-ball at him, and hit him with
that shot most furiously on the right temple of his
head, yet did him no more hurt than if he had but cast
a prune or kernel of a wine-grape at him. What
is this? said Gargantua; do you throw at us grape-kernels
here? The vintage shall cost you dear; thinking
indeed that the bullet had been the kernel of a grape,
or raisin-kernel.
Those who were within the castle, being till then
busy at the pillage, when they heard this noise ran
to the towers and fortresses, from whence they shot
at him above nine thousand and five-and-twenty falconshot
and arquebusades, aiming all at his head, and so thick
did they shoot at him that he cried out, Ponocrates,
my friend, these flies here are like to put out mine
eyes; give me a branch of those willow-trees to drive
them away, thinking that the bullets and stones shot
out of the great ordnance had been but dunflies.
Ponocrates looked and saw that there were no other
flies but great shot which they had shot from the castle.
Then was it that he rushed with his great tree against
the castle, and with mighty blows overthrew both towers
and fortresses, and laid all level with the ground,
by which means all that were within were slain and
broken in pieces. Going from thence, they came
to the bridge at the mill, where they found all the
ford covered with dead bodies, so thick that they had
choked up the mill and stopped the current of its
water, and these were those that were destroyed in
the urinal deluge of the mare. There they were
at a stand, consulting how they might pass without
hindrance by these dead carcasses. But Gymnast
said, If the devils have passed there, I will pass
well enough. The devils have passed there, said
Eudemon, to carry away the damned souls. By St.
Treignan! said Ponocrates, then by necessary consequence
he shall pass there. Yes, yes, said Gymnastes,
or I shall stick in the way. Then setting spurs
to his horse, he passed through freely, his horse not
fearing nor being anything affrighted at the sight
of the dead bodies; for he had accustomed him, according
to the doctrine of Aelian, not to fear armour, nor
the carcasses of dead men; and that not by killing
men as Diomedes did the Thracians, or as Ulysses did
in throwing the corpses of his enemies at his horse’s
feet, as Homer saith, but by putting a Jack-a-lent
amongst his hay, and making him go over it ordinarily
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