continually introduce fresh supplies. Besides, the season, now
far advanced, suggested to him, that he would be forced to pass
the winter in the camp, and during that time be liable to
many insults. Among the sixty forts, there were six much
stronger than the rest, upon the six principal avenues of the
city. The French could before with ease introduce convoys
into the place, and had made frequent use of that advantage.
But after these forts were built, it was with extreme difficulty
that they could, now and then, give some assistance to the be-
sieged. Upon these six redoubts the general erected batteries,
which thundered against the walls."
Rapin*
V. 273
" Encircling walls he builds, surrounding thus
" The city. Firm'd with massiest buttresses,
*'â– At equal distance, sixty forts protect
" The pile. But chief where in the sieged town
U The * six great avenues meet in the midst,
" Six castles there he rear'd impregnable,
" With deep-dug moats and bridges drawn aloft,
<( Where over the strong gate suspended hung
" The dread portcullis. Thence the gunner's eye
<€ From his safe shelter could with ease survey
" Intended sally, or approaching aid,
<c And point destruction.
" It were long to tell
* Rheims had six principle streets meeting thus in one cen-
tre where the Cathedral stood.
Au centre de la Ville, entre six avenues,
S' eleve un sacre temple a la hauteur des nues.
Chapelain.
I know not whether towns were usually built upon this plan.
V. 274
u And tedious, how with many a bold assault
" The men of Orleans rush'd upon their foes ;
u How after difficult fight the enemy
" Possess'd the * Tournelles, and the embattled tower
' ' That shadows from the bridge the subject Loire ;
€€ Tho' numbering now three thousand daring men,
" Frequent and fierce the garrison repell'd
" Their far out-numbering foes. From every aid
" Included, they in Orleans groan' d beneath
€< All ills accumulate. The shatter'd roofs
f ' Gave to the dews of night free passage there,
<c And ever and anon the' ponderous stone,
" Ruining where'er it fell, with hideous crash
* " The bulwark of the Tournelles being much shaken by
the besiegers cannon, and the besieged thinking it proper to
set it on fire, the English extinguished the flames, and lodged
themselves in that post. At the same time they became mas-
ters of the tower on the bridge, from whence the whole city
could be viewed?*
Rapin,
V, 275
" Came like an earthquake, startling from his sleep
" The affrighted soldier. From the brazen slings
" The wild-fire * balls shower'd thro' the midnight sky,
4e And often their huge engines cast among us
" The dead and loathsome cattle of their camp,
<c As tho' our enemies, to their deadly league
< e Forcing the common air, would make us breathe
" Poisonous j- pollution. Thro' the streets were seen
* Drayton enumerates these among the English preparations
for war :
t€ The engineer provided the petard
u To break the strong portcullies, and the balls
u Of wild-fire devised to throw from far
*< To burn to ground their palaces and halls.
And at the siege of Harfleur he says,
" Their brazen slings send in the wild-fire balls."
+ Thus at the siege of Thin sur V escault. " Ceulx de lost
leur gectoient par leur engins chevaulx mors & autres bestes
mortes et puantes, pour les empuantir, dont ilz estoient la de-
dans en moult grant destresse. Car lair estoit fort et chault
ainsi comrae en plein este, et de ce furent plus constrains que
V. 276
u The frequent fire, and heaps of dead, in haste
" Piled up and steaming to infected Heaven.
<e For ever the incessant storm of death
" Pours down, and shrouded in unwholesome * vaults
de nulle autre chose. Si considerent finablement entre eulx
que celle messaise ilz ne pourroient longuement endurer ne
souffiir, tant leur estoit la punaisie abhominable."
Froissart 1 f. 38.
This was an evil which sometimes annoyed the besieging army.
At Dan " pour la puantise des bestes que Ion tuoit en lost, et
des chevaulx qui estoient mors, lair estoit tout corrumpu, dont
moult de chevaliers et escuyers en estoient malades et meren r
colieux, et sey alloient les plusieurs, refreschir a Bruges et
ailleurs pour eviter ce mauvais air."
Froissart 1. 175.
* At Thin sur Y Escault, " La fist le Due charier grant
foison d'engins de Cambray et de Douay, et en y eut six moult
grans, le Due les fist lever devant la forteresse. Lesqlz engins
gectoient nuyt et jour grosses pierres et mangonneaulx qui
abatoient les combles et le hault des tours des chambres et des
salles. Et en contraignoient les gens du Chastel par cest as-
sault tresdurement. Et si nosient les compaignons qui le gar-
doient demourer en chambres nen sales quilz eussent, mais en
caves & en celiers."
Froissart 1* 38,
V. 277
" The wretched females hide, not idle there,
" Wasting the hours in tears, but all employ'd,
" Or to provide the hungry soldier's meal,
M Or tear their garments to bind up his wounds :
<c A sad equality of wretchedness !
" Now came the worst of ills, for Famine came !
•• The provident hand deals out its scanty dole,
" Yielding so little a supply to life
t( As but protracted death. The loatliliest food
" Hunted witli eager eye, and dainty deem'd ;
(< The dog is slain, that at his master's feet
u Howling with hunger lay -, with jealous fear,
u Hating a rival's look, the husband hides
" His miserable meal j the famished babe
" Clings closely to his dying mother's breast >
" And — horrible to tell ! — where, thrown aside
" There lay unburied in the open streets
" Huge heaps of carcasses, the soldier stands
VOL. I. N
V. 278.
" Eager to mark the carrion crow for * food.
" O peaceful scenes of childhood! pleasant fields!
" Haunts of mine infancy, where I have strayed
' ' Tracing the brook along its winding way,
" Or pluck'd the primrose, or with giddy speed
" Chaced the gay butterfly from flower to flower !
u O days in vain rememberd ! how my soul
" Sick with calamity, and the sore ills
" Of hunger, dwelt upon you ! quiet home !
*' Thinking of you amid the waste of war,
*< I could in bitterness have curs'd the Great
" Who made me what I was ! a helpless one,
" Orphan'd, and wanting bread !
* Scudery has a most ingenious idea of the effects of famine >
during the blockade of Rome by the Goths ; he makes the
inhabitants first eat one another, and then eat themselves.
La rage se meslant a leurs douleurs extremes,
lis se mangent l'un l'autre, ils se mangent eux-mesmcs.
Alaric.
Fuller expresses the want of food pithily. " The siege grew
long, and victuals short."
V. 279
" And be they curst,?
Conrade exclaim'd, his dark eye flashing rage $
<( And be they curst ! O groves and woodland shades,
" How blest indeed were you, if the iron rod
c< Should one day from Oppression's hand be wrenched
ri By everlasting Justice ! come that hour
" When in the Sun * the Angel of the Lord
* And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried
with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst
of heaven, " Come and gather yourselves together unto the
supper of the great God :
That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains,
and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of
them that sit on them.
Revelations, xix. 17, 18.
The same idea occurs in Ezekiel, though not with equal sub.
limity.
And thou, son of man, thus saith the Lord God, speak
unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field.
Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every
side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great
sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh
and drink blood.
N 5
V. 280
if Shall stand and cry to all the fowls of Hearen,
" Gather ye to the supper of your God,
u That ye may eat the flesh of mighty men,
u Of Captains, and of Kings !" Then shall be peace,
" And now, lest all should perish," she pursued,
u The women and the infirm must from the town
" Go forth, and seek their fate.
" I will not now
" Recall the moment, when on my poor Francis,
" With a long look I hung ! At dead of night,
Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the
princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bul-
locks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be
drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots,
with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord
God.
Ezekiel xxxix. 17, &c.
V. 281
< r Made mute by fear, we mount the secret bark,
u And glide adown the stream with silent oars :
(< Thus thrown upon the mercy of mankind,
u I wandered reckless where, till wearied out,
" And cold at heart, I laid me down to die :
" So by this warrior found. Him I had known
" Andloved , for all loved Conrade who had known him;
" Nor did I feel so pressing the hard hand
" Of want in Orleans, ere he parted thence
" On perilous envoy. For of his small fare" —
" Of this enough/' said Conrade, " Holy Maid I
" One duty yet awaits me to perform.
u Orleans her envoy sent me, to demand
u Aid from her idle sovereign. Willingly
" Did I atchieve the hazardous enterprize,
" For Rumour had already made me fear
" The ill that hath fallen on me. It remains
" Ere I do banish me from human kind,
u That I re-enter Orleans, and announce
V. 282
" Thy march. ,r Tis night — and hark ! how dead a
" silence !
" Fit hour to tread so perilous a path !"
So saying Conrade from the tent went forth.
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
y^ifu