[1] See the siege of Ismaïl.
[2] Michaud’s “Hist. des Crusades.”
[3] Gibbon.
[4] Rollin.
[5] The quintal was of several kinds: the least weighed 125 lbs., the
largest more than 1,200 lbs.
[6] Scorpions were machines like cross-bows, for the discharge of darts
and arrows.
[7] Rollin.
[8] Rollin.
[9] Following Hale and Holinshed, Shakespeare has made Fastolfe a
coward, and, it is supposed, borrowed from him the name for his
inimitable Falstaff. But the historical Fastolfe vindicated his good
name, and was restored to his honours. Dr. Heylin, in his “St. George
for England,” says, “without doubt, this Sir John Fastolfe was a
valiant and wise captain.”
[10] All the world knows the famous quatrain composed by Francis I upon
this action of the fair Agnes:--
“Gentille Agnès, plus d’honneur tu mérite,
La cause étant de France recouvrer,
Que ce que peut dedans un cloître ouvrer,
Clause Nonnain, ou bien dévôt Hermite.”
[11] This circumstance seems to authorize the opinion of those who
pretend that La Pucelle was nothing more than a shrewd, clever girl,
whom Dunois employed to excite the wavering courage of the king’s
followers, and detain the monarch himself. Shakespeare makes Dunois
introduce her to the king.
[12] Memoirs of Sir Sidney Smith.
[13] This anecdote is evidently the foundation of an amusing scene in
Dumas’ “Three Musketeers,” and proves the truth of the proverb, “that
truth is even more strange than fiction.”
[14] A small work composed of two sides, which is raised opposite the
salient angles or _rentrants_ of the covered way, at the extremity of
its glacis.
[15] We insert this for an opportunity of comparing the expenses in two
ages: Turin, in 1706, and Sebastopol, in 1854–55.
[16] Holes dug in front of a circumvallation, or other intrenchment, as
a trap for cavalry.
[17] Rendered too wide at the mouth.
[18] “This excellent manner of defending places is practised thus,”
says Grotius in his description of this siege: “when a city which
dreads a siege has many soldiers, the fortifications are carried
outwards to a distance, to stop the progress of the enemy. By this
means those who are shut up have a longer time to defend themselves,
and still further, the internal parts of the place remain longer in
safety. Thus then the prince of Orange gave orders that, before the
boulevards of Bommel, others should be made, and then still others,
which should be inclosed with a fosse of water, as well as the
preceding ones, so that in the end, all that was capable of defence
should be further surrounded by a parapet.”--_Annals of Grotius._
This, then, is the origin of the multiplication of the exterior works
of places of war and of the covered way, to which Grotius gives the
name of parapet. Engineers have since made it their study that all
fortifications should sustain one another, and might be, at the same
time, sustained by the body of the place.
[19] It had arrived some months before from England; but most of the
men had been sick.
[20] The _Royal Military Chronicle_.
[21] _Royal Military Chronicle._
[22] The Belgic Revolution, by Charles White, Esq.