If the barrel is elevated too high you can shoot a cannon over a mountain.
Oh heckyeah, but the impression I've gotten from reading and the couple pics I've seen is it was elevated just a bit too much and skipped off the berm after striking it. All I'm saying is, I wouldn't feel comfortable firing a cannon (heck, now that I think about it, even a rifle) at a gentle, sloping berm with a town behind it. It should've been at or near vertical to effectively trap the projectile.
Hindsight and all, but it would seem to me that would be a reasonable precaution to take and someone should have noticed.
Ah well, the lawyers get another ivory backscratcher, the homeowner wins the personal damages and emotional suffering lottery, and
nobody was hurt. That's the main thing.
Wiley.