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It was an omnium gatherum of vagabonds, prowling ruffians of the vilest kind, ragged scamps, all carrying arms, stolen from every sort of place, among others from the Musee d'Artillerie, whence some had gone so far as to borrow cuirasses and helmets that had belonged to the warriors of the League. Of course they all had to be fed and paid.
The Musée d'Artillerie is adjoining, and contains the armour worn from the earliest ages, as also the weapons which have been used, and those of different countries.
Some of my readers may, perhaps, not have seen an authentic statement of this most horrid circumstance, I shall therefore give a translation of the letter of Maillard Lescourt, major of artillery, taken from the Journal des Debats of the 7th April: "I was employed, on the evening before the attack of Paris, in assembling the horses necessary for the removal of the artillery, and was assisted in this duty by the officers of the 'Direction Generale. At nine at night a colonel gallopped up to the gate of the grating of St Dominique, where I was standing, and asked to speak to the Directeur d'Artillerie.
Thus we had passed through the Rue d'Arcola, the Rue de Kleber, the Rue d'Egypte, and the Rue d'Artillerie Volante, before we found ourselves in the great central square in which the headquarters of the army were situated.
Toutes cinq sont bien garnies d'artillerie. J'y ai remarqué sur-tout trois bombardes de métail (canons de bronze) dont deux étoient de deux pièces, [Footnote: La remarque que l'auteur fait ici sur ces trois canons sembleroit annoncer que ceux de bronze étoient rares encore, et qu'on les regardoit comme une sorte de merveille. Louis XI en fit fondre une douzaine, auxquels il donna le nom des douze pairs. (Daniel, Mil. Franc, t. I, p. 825.)] et l'une d'une telle grosseur que jamais je n'en ai vu de pareille: elle avoit quarante-deux pouces de large dedans où la pierre entre (sa bouche avoit quarante-deux pouces de diamètre); mais elle me parut courte pour sa grosseur. [Footnote: La mode alors étoit de faire des pièces d'artillerie d'une grosseur énorme. Peu dé temps après l'époque où écrivoit notre auteur, Mahomet II, assiégeant Constantinople, en employa qui avoient été fondues sur les lieux, et qui portoient, dit on, deux cents livres de balle. La Chronique Scandaleuse et Monstrelet parlent d'une sorte d'obus que Louis XI fit fondre
Several of them may be seen at the Musee d'Artillerie at Paris. In the time of Louis XIV. the art of casting cannon was carried to a high degree of perfection. The gun in question may have been made by a French blacksmith on the spot. By the terms of his patent, he held seigniorial rights over this wild domain; and he now began to grant it out in parcels to his followers.
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