The seventh day since the arrival of the royal host was marked by the grinding of wagon wheels and the thud of shovelfuls of dirt, as men toiled along the lines dug into the earth. Carts rolled in steady procession, heaped with soil, rocks, and debris, all to be poured into the deep ditches that encircled the city. The air was thick with dust and the smell of churned soil, mingling with the faint tang of sweat from thousands of laboring bodies.
Alpheo stood upon a small rise, his eyes fixed on the labor with the detachment of a sculptor inspecting the rough beginnings of his work done by the disciples
No assault worth the name could be mounted until the trenches were filled and the causeways built, allowing the great siege engines to roll forward to the very base of the walls.
It was, of course unfortunate that they had no cheap bodies to use as labor, as it had happened before on every siege.
