thrown up against it, and the posts formed about it. If there be no reason to fear a sally from the place, the siege may be raised in the day time. The artillery and ammunition must have a strong rear guard, lest the besieged should attempt to charge the rear: if there be any fear of the enemy in front, this order must be altered discretionally, as safety and the nature of the country will admit.

To turn the siege into a blockade (convertir le siège en blocus, Fr.) is to give over the attack and endeavour to take it by famine; for which purpose all the avenues, gates, and streams, leading into the place, are so well guarded that no succor can get in to its relief.

To insult a work, to attack it in a sudden and unexpected manner, with small arms, or sword in hand.

Surprise, the taking a place by a coup de main, by stratagem, or treason.

To escalade a place, to approach it secretly, then to place ladders against the wall or rampart, for the troops to mount and get into it that way.

To petard a place, privately to approach the gate, and fix a petard to it, so as to break it open for the troops to enter.

Line of circumvallation, a kind of fortification, consisting of a parapet or breast-work, and a ditch before it, to cover the besiegers against any attempt of the enemy in the field.

Line of contravallation, a breast-work, with a ditch before it, to cover the besiegers against any sally from the garrison, in the same manner that the line of circumvallation serves to protect them in the field.

Lines, works made to cover an army, so as to command a part of the country, with a breast work and ditch before them.

Retrenchment, a work made round the camp of an army, to cover it against any surprise.

Line of counter-approach, a trench which the besieged make from the covert-way to the right and left of the besieger's attacks, in order to scour their works. This line must be perfectly enfiladed from the covert-way and the half moon, &c., that it may be of no service to the enemy, in case he gets possession of it.

Batteries at a siege cannot be erected till the trench is advanced within reach of the cannon of the place; that is, within what is generally understood to be a point-blank range, which is reckoned about 300 toises, 1800 feet.

Cannon is made use of at a siege for two different purposes; the first to drive away the enemy from their defences; and the second to dismount their guns. To produce these two effects, the batteries should not be above the mean reach of cannon shot from the place: therefore there is no possibility of constructing them till the first parallel is formed, as that work is usually traced at 300 toises from the place: therefore the batteries must be on this line, or between it and the town.

The completion of the batteries is in some services left to the officers of the royal artillery, after the engineers have thrown up the mass of cover; but in the British service the engineers finish every part of them. They must be parallel

to the works of the town which they are to batter. It is customary to place the mortar-batteries an gun-batteries side by side, and in the same line, to the end that they may batter the same parts. The use of both is to demolish the enemy's works, to dismount their guns, to penetrate into their powder magazines, and to drive the besieged from their works and defences; as also to ruin and destroy the principal buildings, by setting fire to the town; and to fatigue and distress the inhabitants in such a manner that they shall press the garrison to surrender.

To sally at a siege is to go privately out of a besieged town, fall suddenly upon the besiegers, and destroy part of their works, spike their cannon, and do every other possible damage.

A sally, a secret movement which is made out of a besieged town or place, by a chosen body of troops, for the purpose of destroying an enemy's outworks, &c. Sallies are seldom made when the garrison is weak; for although they molest the enemy, and keep him on the alert, yet the chance of losing men renders it prudent to keep within the works.

Saps. To sap at a siege is the method of carrying on the approaches when so'near the place as to be unable to work without cover. It is performed by men on their knees behind a mantlet or stuffed gabion: they make the sap three feet deep, and three feet six inches wide; then common workmen widen it to the usual size, and it bears the name of trench. There are various sorts of saps, viz.

Single sap, that which is made on one side only, or, which is the same thing, has only one parapet.

Double sup has a parapet on each side, and is carried on wherever its two sides are seen from the place.

Flying sap is that in which the working parties of the besiegers place their gabions themselves, and instantly fill them with earth, and continue to work under their cover: it is made where the workmen are not much exposed, and in order to accelerate the approaches.

Sap-faggots are a kind of fascines, only three feet long, and about six inches in diameter.

Saucissons are another species of fascines, from twelve to nineteen feet long, and from eight to ten inches in diameter, and are used in making batteries, and repairing the breaches.

Sortie. See Sally.

Tail, or rear of the trench (queue de la tranchée, Fr.), is the first work the besiegers make when they open the trenches.

Tambour, a kind of traverse, at the upper end of the trench, or opening made in the glacis to communicate with the arrows. This work hinders the besiegers from being masters of the arrow, or discovering the inside of the place of arms belonging to the covert-way.

Traverse in a siege, a kind of retrenchment, which is made in the dry ditch, to defend the passage over it.

Trenches are passages or turnings dug in the earth, in order to approach a place without being seen from its defences.

Woolpacks used in a siege differ from sandbags in this only, that they are much larger, and

instead of earth, they are filled with wool. They are used in making lodgments in places where there is but little earth, and for other similar purposes. They are about five feet high and fifteen inches in diameter.

Rear of an attack is the place where the attack begins.

Front, or head of an attack, that part next to the place

Mantlets are wooden fences, rolling upon wheels, of two feet diameter; the body of the axle-tree is about four or five inches square, and four or five feet long; to which is fixed a pole of eight or ten feet long, by two spars upon the axle-tree is fixed a wooden parapet, three feet high, made of three-inch planks, and four feet long, joined with dowel-pins, and two cross bars: this parapet leans somewhat towards the pole, and is supported by a brace, one end of which is fixed to the pole, and the other to the upper part of the parapet. Mantlets are used to cover the sappers in front against musket-shot. Maxims in sieges, 1. The approaches should be made without being seen from the town, either directly, obliquely, or in flank.

2. No more works should be made than are necessary for approaching the place without being seen; i. e. the besiegers should carry on their approaches the shortest way possible, consistent with being covered against the enemy's fire.

3. All the parts of the trenches should mu tually support each other; and those which are farthest advanced should be distant from those that defend them about 120 or 130 toises, that is, within musket-shot.

4. The parallels, or places of arms the most distant from the town, should have a greater extent than those which are the nearest, that the besiegers may be able to take the enemy in flank, should he resolve to attack the nearest parallels.

5. The trench should be opened or begun as near as possible to the place, without exposing the troops too much, in order to accelerate and diminish the operations of the siege.

6. Care should be taken to join the attacks; that is, they should have communications, to the end that they may be able to support each other.

7. Never to advance a work, unless it be well supported; and for this reason, in the interval between the second and third place of arms, the besiegers should make on both sides of the trenches smaller places of arms, extending forty or fifty toises in length, parallel to the others, and constructed in the same manner, which will serve to lodge the soldiers in, who are to protect the works designed to reach the third place of

arms.

8. Take care to place the batteries of cannon in the continuation of the faces of the parts attacked, in order to silence their fire; and to the end that the approaches, being protected, may advance with greater safety and expedition. 9. For this reason, the besiegers should always embrace the whole front attacked, in order to have as much space as is requisite to place the batteries on the produced faces of the works attacked.

Several hand-jacks, gins, sling-carts, travelling forges, and other engines proper to raise and carry heavy burdens; spare timber, and all sorts of miners' tools, mantlets, stuffed gabions, fascines, pickets, and gabions.

Siège brusque, Fr., an expression used among the French to signify the prompt and immediate movement of a besieging army, against a fortified town or place, without waiting for the regular formation of lines, &c. In this case the troops make a vigorous attack upon all the outworks, and endeavour to make a lodgment upon the counterscarp. When they have suceeded, they instantly throw up temporary lines, &c., behind them, in order to secure a retreat, should the garrison force them to quit their ground.

The following are some of the most important sieges from the twelfth century to the year 1815. Acre, 1192; 1799, by Buonaparte.-The siege raised after sixty days' open trenches. Agria, 1566, 1687. Aiguillon, 1345.

Alba Regalis (Stulweissenberg), 1543, 1601, 1602, 1688. Alcantara, 1706.

Alessandria (Italy), 1801.

Algiers, besieged by an armament from Charles V. of Spain, in 1541.-Bombarded by order of Louis XIV., in 1682, on which occasion bomb vessels were first employed by a French engineer of the name of Renau.-Bombarded again in 1683; again in 1689, by the French; and finally by lord Exmouth on the 27th day of August, 1816. Algesiras, 1341. Alhama, 1481. Alkmaar, 1573.

Almeida, August 27th, 1810.-Lost by the accidental explosion of the principal magazine, and the after-treachery of major Jose de Barreiros, the Portuguese artillery commander. X 2

Amiens, 1597.

Ancona, 1799.

Angely (St. Jean d'), 1569, 1621. Angoulême, 1345.

Antequera, 1410.

Bourges, 1412.

Braunau, 1744, 1805.

Breda, 1590, 1625, 1793, 1794.
Brescia, 1439, 1512, 1796, 1799.

Breslaw, 1741, 1757, 1759; January 8th, 1807.

chines; 1706, 1792, 1814.

Aretino, 1800.

Arras, 1414.

Arisch (El), 1800.

Astorga, April 12th, 1810.

Azoff, 1736.

Asti, 1745, 1746.

Atella, 1496.

Ath, 1697, 1700; 1745.-First general adoption of firing with artillery à ricochet, at a siege. Avignon, 1226.

Badajoz, March 11th, 1811; besieged by lord Wellington in May, the siege raised; a second time during May and June, again raised June 9th, from an insufficiency of means; besieged by his lordship, the third time, in 1812, and taken by escalade on the night of April 6th. If the British had failed, in this last attempt, the army must have gone back to the lines of Torres Vedras.-Remark.-After twenty days' open trenches, three breaches were made; the assault of these failed, while an attack of the same walls by escalade succeeded. Such were the exertions, and so daring was the intrepidity of the British troops during the escalade, particularly that made by general Leith, and the late lamented Sir Thomas Picton, K. B., that a few years hence they will scarcely obtain belief.

Beauvais, 1472.

Brieg, 1741, 1806, 1807.
Brisac, 1638, 1703, 1704.

Brussels (bombardment), 1695, 1746.
Buda, 1526, 1528, 1541, 1684, 1686.
Burgos (Castle of), September 19th, to October
22d, 1812.-The siege of this insignificant
place was raised from the want of sufficient
means of attack-there not being a miner, a
sapper, hardly an artificer in the attacking
party. The fortifications were blown up by
the French in 1813, in their retreat, June 13th.
Cadiz, February 10th, 1810, raised August 12th,
1812, in consequence of the defeat of Marmont
at the battle of Salamanca.
Caen, 1346, 1450.

Calais, 1347, starved into a surrender by Edward III.; 1436, 1558, 1596. Calvi (Corsica), 1794.

Campo-Mayor, March 23d, 1811; April 15th. Candia, 1667 to 1669.-The largest cannon at that time known in Europe cast by the Turks in their camp.-Parallels to support the approaches, invented by an Italian engineer, first used. Capua, 1501. Carignan, 1544. Carthagena, 1706. Casal, 1534, 1629, 1630. Cassel, 1328.

Cassel (Hesse), 1761. Castillon, 1452, 1586.

Ceuta, 1790.

Chalus, 1199.-Death of Richard Coeur-deLion.

1739, 1789.

Bellegarde, 1793, 1794.

Belle-Isle, April 7th, 1761.

Belvedere (Calabria), 1289.
Bene, 1551, 1795.
Bergerac, 1345.

Bergen-op-zoom, 1588, 1622, 1747, 1814.During one of the most obstinate sieges against this strong place, the Dutch, from the prevalence of a thirst for lucre, actually sold gunpowder and other materials to enable the enemy to destroy their own property.

Berwick, 1293.

Besançon, 1668, 1674.

Bethune, 1710.

Blisecastel, 1674, 1794.

Bois-le-duc, 1603, 1629, 1794.

Bologna, 1512, 1796.

Corfu, 1715.

1794.

Bonifacio, 1553.

Bonn, 1587, 1689, 1703.

Bordeaux, 1451, 1452, 1653.

Bouchain, 1676; 1711,-last seige of the duke of Marlborough.

Boulogne, 1545.

1302 to 1800. Cracow, 1772.

Cremona, 1702.-Surprised by prince Eugene, who carried off marshal Villeroy prisoner; but was finally driven out of the town, after a combat of several hours. Crèvecœur, 1672, 1794.

and blown up.

Damien (St.), 1617.

Fontenay, 1242, demolished.

Fossano, 1536.

Frederickshall,

killed.

Leipsic, 1637; taken and retaken several times afterwards, particularly in 1815. Lemberg, 1704.

Frederickstein, August 13th, 1814.

Furnes, 1675, 1744, 1793.

Lerida, 1647, 1707; May 14th, 1807. Leucate, 1590, 1637.

Leutmeritz, 1742.

Montevideo, January 1808.

Montmedi, 1657.

Montmélian, 1600, 1691. Mortagne, 1378, 1794.

Mothe (de la), 1634. The French, taught by Mr. Muller, an English engineer, first practised the art of throwing shells.

Murviedro (Saguntum), October 25th, 1811.
Naerden, 1572.

Namur, 1692, 1695, 1746, 1792.

Salisbury, 1349.

Saragossa, 1710; 1808, four months; February 21st, 1809, taken after fifty-two days open trenches, twenty-nine of which the enemy were in the streets. Saverne, 1675. Sbarras, 1676.

Schweidnitz, 1762, the first experiment to reduce a fortress by springing globes of compression;

1807.

1792, 1799, 1806.

Neiss, 1741, 1807.
Nemez, 1686.

Neuhausel, 1621, 1663, 1685.

Nice, 1705, remarkable for the mode of attack adopted by marshal Berwick;-see his Me

moirs.

Nieuport, 1745; 1794, inundated and obstinately defended by a handful of British troops against a large French force under the command of general Pichegru.

Nocera, 1386.

Olivença (blockade), January 22d, 1811. Olmutz, 1758.

Oran, 1509, 1708, 1732.

Orleans, 1428, 1563.

Sebastian (St.), next to Gibraltar, the strongest place in Spain, 1719; September 8th, 1814, most obstinately defended by the French; till general Graham directed the guns to be fired against the curtain, over the men's heads as they advanced to the breach.

Serezanella, a town in Tuscany, 1487; the first
mines, since the invention of gunpowder, were
made at the siege of this place, by the Genoese.
Seringapatam, 1799.
Seville, 1096, 1248.
Skid, 1678.
Sienna, 1544.
Sigeth, 1566.

Silberberg, 1807.

Sluys, 1587, 1604, 1757, 1794.

Padua, 1509.

Palamos, 1694, 1695.

Soissons, 1414.

Stralsund, 1675, the method of throwing red-hot balls first practised with certainty; 1713, 1807. Straubing, 1742.

garrison nearly destroyed from being lodged in damp casemates, and the defence very much abridged thereby.

Tarifa, 1292; December 20th, 1811.

Tarragona, June 28th, 1811, stormed by the
French-man, woman, and child put to the
sword.-May, 1813, besieged by Sir John
Murray,-siege raised.
Temeswar, 1716.
Terremonde, 1584.
Tergoes, 1572.

Thérouanne, 1513, 1553.
Thionville, 1643, 1792.
Thorn, 1703.

Thouars, 1372, 1793.

Tortona, 1734, 1745, 1799.
Tortosa, January 2d, 1811.
Toulon, 1707, 1793.

Toulouse, 1217.

Tournai, 1340, 1352, 1581, 1667; 1709, the

best defence ever drawn from countermines; 1745, 1794.

Trembawla, 1675.

Treves, 1675.

Rhodes, besieged three times, the last in 1522.

Riga, 1700, 1710.

Rochelle, 1372, 1573, 1627.

Rome. 1527, 1798.

Ronda, 1485.

Rosas, 1645, 1795, 1808.

Rotweil, 1640.

Tunis, 1270, 1535.

Turin, 1640, 1706, 1799.

Urbino, 1799.

Vachtendonck, 1588.

Valencia (of Alcantara), 1705.

Valencia (New, Spanish America), August 18th,

1811, surrendered to Miranda.

Valenciennes, 1557, 1677; 1794, taken by the allied army under the command of H. R. H. the duke of York.

Valognes, 1364.