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When he saw the destruction of life and property in one scale and political slavery in the other, he did not hesitate. The dikes were quietly opened. Turenne and Luxembourg and Vauban were baffled as completely as Napoleon in Russia. And when the magnificent army had evacuated the flooded country, the dikes were quietly closed again and time and windmills restored their fields to fertility.
Vauban, already celebrated as an engineer, traced out the lines of circumvallation; the army of M. de Crequi formed a junction with that of Turenne; there was expectation of an attempt on the part of the governor of the Low Countries to relieve the place; the Spanish force sent for that purpose arrived too late, and was beaten on its retreat; the burgesses of Lille had forced the garrison to capitulate; and Louis XIV. entered it on the 27th of August, after ten days' open trenches.
Voltaire's Age of Louis XIV.; Henri Martin's History of France; Miss Pardoe's History of the Court of Louis XIV.; Letters of Madame de Maintenon; Memoires de Greville; Saint Simon; P. Clement; Le Gouvernement de Louis XIV.; Memoires de Choisy; Oeuvres de Louis XIV.; Limiers's Histoire de Louis XIV.; Quincy's Histoire Militaire de Louis XIV.; Lives of Colbert, Turenne, Vauban, Conde, and Louvois; Macaulay's History of England; Lives of Fenelon and Bossuet; Memoires de Foucault; Memoires du Due de Bourgogne; Histoire de l'Edit de Nantes; Laire's Histoire de Louis XIV.; Memoires de Madame de la Fayette; Memoires de St.
These latter, therefore, were opposed to the system, and their opposition, as will be seen, was of no slight consequence. Vauban read this book with much attention. He differed on some points with the author, but agreed with him in the main. Boisguilbert wished to preserve some imposts upon foreign commerce and upon provisions.
"This is no child's play," said Vauban on setting about the fortifications of Dunkerque, "and I would rather lose my life than hear said of me some day what I hear said of the men who have preceded me." Louvois' admiration was unmixed when he went to examine the works.
A man ought to make up his mind, sir, either to openly profess himself a courtier or to devote himself to his duty when he is an officer." Artillery and engineering were developed under the influence of Vauban, "the first of his own time and one of the first of all times" in the great art of besieging, fortifying, and defending places.
The Duc de Luxembourg, sole general of his own army, covered the siege operations, and observed the enemy. The ladies went away to Dinant. On the third day of the march M. le Prince went forward to invest the place. The celebrated Vauban, the life and soul of all the sieges the King made, was of opinion that the town should be attacked separately from the castle; and his advice was acted upon.
A New Type of Obstacle. Chemical warfare has introduced a new type of strategic and tactical obstacle. Mediaeval methods of war relied largely on natural and man-built barriers. Rivers, moats, forts were, and still are, to a certain extent, critical factors in war. The conceptions of a Vauban could determine the issue of a campaign.
Beyond is a glacis of vivid grass, a hundred feet high at some points, topped by vast iron-grey walls of cyclopean boulder-work, with the sudden angles of a Vauban fortress. Above these walls the weird pine-trees of Japan extend their lean tormented boughs. Within is the Emperor's domain. Geoffrey was hurrying homeward along the banks of the moat.
The progress made in that direction was due to Vauban, whose eminent genius had mastered every question and every branch of study so completely, that, when applied to on any subject connected with politics or war, his opinion was always clear and correct.
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