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During the late Cherokee war a plan was also formed for fortifying the town towards the land, with a horn-work built of tappy, flanked with batteries and redoubts at proper distances, and extending from river to river; but, after having spent a great sum of money on this work, peace being restored, the design was dropt.
Had my head been fortified with a horn-work, I should not have been so sensible of the stroke."
The horn-work was intended to cover the only side upon which the castle was open to an attack from level ground, and to occupy what would otherwise have been a dangerous platform. The eastern side of the outer ward the grand front is a most imposing structure.
In front of the neck of this peninsula was the hill of San Bartholomeo, on which stood the convent of that name. At the narrowest part of the neck stood a redoubt, which was called the Cask Redoubt, because it was constructed of casks filled with stand. Behind this came the horn-work and other fortifications.
I wish I could say so, for unless it was with his sister-in-law, my father's wife and my mother my uncle Toby scarce exchanged three words with the sex in as many years; no, he got it, Madam, by a blow. A blow! Yes, Madam, it was owing to a blow from a stone, broke off by a ball from the parapet of a horn-work at the siege of Namur, which struck full upon my uncle Toby's groin.
This retort, which carried a severe allusion to the president's wife, lighted up the countenances of the aggressor's friends, which had begun to be a little obumbrated; and had a contrary effect upon the other faction, till their chief, collecting all his capacity, returned the salute, by observing, that there was no occasion for a horn-work, when the covered way was not worth defending.
On the further side is the fort itself, which consists of the fortified knoll, a strong stone horn-work, an enclosure for horses, protected by a loopholed wall and much tangled barbed wire, and the signal tower, a detached post 200 yards up the cliff. Every precaution was henceforth taken in the fort.
I may at least explain what GLOBE DE COMPRESSION is; for it becomes famous on this occasion, and no name could be less descriptive of the thing. Sufficient to blow any horn-work, bastion, bulwark, into the air, provided you plant it in the right place; which poor Lefebre never can.
But upon this occasion, as upon the former one, the proper precautions were not taken; no lodgment had been effected in the horn-work, and, worst of all, the blockade had been so negligently conducted by the fleet, that large bodies of fresh troops, guns, and ammunition had been passed in, and the defense was even stronger than it had been when the first assault was delivered.
Elmo plied them with shot and shell, while two pieces of cannon on the cavalier and one on the horn-work raked them with grape. Still the column neither halted nor faltered, but dashed, like a wave, up the breach. When, however, they reached the top they could go no farther. A deep gulf separated them from the town, while from every loop-hole and wall behind, the French musketry swept the breach.
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