The fall of Várad: stone-throwers, a new wall, a burning cathedral
Editorial contextRoger was a canon at Várad and had just had the damaged castle repaired with a broad new wall; he himself fled to the woods. He describes the castle's ditches and wooden towers on the walls. The Tartars set up seven stone-throwing machines against the new wall and battered it day and night until it fell. The noblewomen who had fled into the cathedral were burned inside it.
For it was fortified with great ditches and wooden towers on the walls, and many knights in mail were there … And at once surrounding the castle, they set up seven machines facing the new wall, and did not stop hurling stones with them day and night until the new wall was completely thrown down. … And because they could not quickly get into the cathedral church, they set fire to it and burned the church, the ladies and whatever was in the church.
Working translation
Original wording
Nam magnis munitum erat fossatis, et turribus ligneis super muros, et multi loricati milites erant ibi … Et castrum illico circumdantes, ex opposito ad murum nouum septem machinas posuerunt, et die noctuque cum eis emittere lapides, quousque nouus murus dirutus est ex toto, nullatenus cessauerunt. … Et quia kathedralem ecclesiam subito intrare nequiuerunt, igne apposito ecclesiam et dominas, et quidquid erat in ecclesia combusserunt.
About Kadan's Mongol army
Keep in mind
Roger saw the defences, having had the new wall built himself, but fled to the woods before the final assault; the fall of the castle and the burning of the cathedral are reported from survivors.