Page 131.-Salisbury, their watchful chief. "The besiegers received succours in the very beginning of the siege; but the earl of Salisbury, who considered this enterprise as a decisive action for the king his master, and his own reputation, omitted nothing to deprive the besieged of that advantage. He run up round the city sixty forts. How great soever this work might be, nothing could divert him from it, since the success of the siege entirely depended upon it. In vain would he have pursued his attack, if the enemies could 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 besieged. Upon these six redoubts the general erected batteries, which thundered against the walls."

Rapin.

Page 131. The six great avenues meet in the midst. Rheims had six principal streets meeting thus in one centre where the cathedral stood.

Au centre de a ville, entre six avenues,

S'eleve un sacré temple a la hauteur des nues.

Chapelain. I know not whether towns were usually built upon

this plan.

Page 131. - Possess'd the Tournelles.

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 masters of the tower on the bridge, from whence the whole city could be viewed.

Rapin.

Page 132.-The wild-fire balls shower'd thro' the midnight sky.

Drayton enumerates these among the English preparations for war.

"The engineer provided the petard

To break the strong portcullies, and the balls
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."
"Balls of consuming wild-fire

That lickt men up like lightning, have I laught at,
And tost 'em back again like children's trifles."
B. and F. The Mad Lover.

"I do command that particular care be had, advising

the gunners to have half butts with water and vinegar, as is accustomed, with bonnets and old sails, and wet mantles to defend fire, that as often is thrown.

Every ship shall carry two boats' lading of stones, to throw to profit in the time of fight on the deck, forecastle or tops, according to his burden.

"That the wild-fire be reparted to the people most expert, that we have for the use thereof, at due time; for that if it be not overseen, giving charge thereof to those that do understand it, and such as we know can tell how to use it; otherwise it may happen to great danger." Orders set doum by the duke of Medina to be

observed in the voyage toward England.
Harl. Misc. vol. i.

"Şome were preparing to toss balls of wild-fire, as if the sea had been their tennis-court."

Deliverance of certain Christians from the Turks.

Harl. Misc. vol. i.

Page 132.- Poisonous pollution.

Thus at the siege of Thin sur l'Escault:

de lost leur gectoient par leur engins chevaulz mors et autres bestes mortes et puantes, pour les empuantir, dont ilz estoient la dedans en moult grant destresse. Car lair estoit fort et chault ainsi comme en plein este, et de ce furent plus constrains que de nulle autre chose. Si considerent finablement entre eulx que celle messaise ilz ne pourroient longuement endurer ne souffrir, tant leur estoit la punaisie abhominable.”

Froissart, i. 38.

This was an evil which sometimes annoyed the besieging army. At Dan " pour la puantise des bestes que lon tuoit en lost, et des chevaulx qui estoient mors, lair estoit tout corrumpu, dont moult de chevaliers et escuyers en estoient malades et merencolieux, et sey alloient les plusieurs, refreschir a Bruges et ailleurs pour eviter ce mauvais air."

Froissart, i. 175.

Page 132.-Shrouded in unwholesome vaults.

At Thin sur l'Escault, "La fist le duc charier grant foison d'engins de Cambray et de Douay, et en y eut six moult grans, le duc 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 assault tresdurement. Et si nosient les compaignons qui le gardoient demourer en chambres nen sales quilz eussent, mais en caves et en celiers."

Froissart, i. 38.

Page 133.-Eager to mark the carrion crow for food. 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 à leurs douleurs extrêmes,

Ils se mangent l'un l'autre, ils se mangent eux-mesmes.

Alaric.

Fuller expresses the want of food pithily: siege grew long, and victuals short.”

"The

Page 134.-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.

Revelation, xix. 17, 18. The same idea occurs in Ezekiel, though not with equal sublimity.

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 acrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh and drink blood.

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 bullocks, 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.