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They resolved therefore to quit their lines on the higher ground and to cut off by a cross-wall a space close to their ships, no greater than was absolutely required for their baggage and for their sick; after leaving a guard there, they meant to put on board every other man, and to launch all their ships, whether fit for service or not; they would then fight a decisive battle, and, if they conquered, go to Catana; but if not, they would burn their ships, and retreat by land in good order, taking the nearest way to some friendly country, barbarian or Hellenic.
A somewhat similar difference between the upper and lower portions may be observed in the east and north walls also. The late doorway approached by four steps, east of the cross-wall, occupies the place of one of the windows. Three kinds of stone occur in this crypt: a sandstone, a fine gritstone, and a coarser and harder gritstone.
The crypt is divided by a cross-wall with a round arch in it into two portions, each having the vaulting supported on pillars along the middle; but half of the first and third bays of the western portion has been walled up in modern times for burial-vaults. The width of the crypt is about 18 feet and the total length about 68 feet.
The third window was once circular like the rest, for a portion of the rim may still be traced; but as it would otherwise have been bisected by the cross-wall, the later builders have blocked half of it and squared the rest, splaying it at the same time like a squint. The date of the south wall itself is doubtful. It is thinner here than in either the vestry or the crypt. St. Wilfrid.
The interior arrangement was after the Mexican custom of building, with rooms along the outer walls all opening into a big patio, or open court. A cross-wall separated this court from the large corral inside the outer walls at the rear.
The combined movement was completely successful; the three hundred carried the stockade and cross-wall by storm, and compelled the defenders to take refuge within the ramparts of Syracuse. The whole Athenian army then marched up to the counterwall and stockade, which they speedily demolished, carrying off the materials for their own use.
The plans of the shafts are shown on Plates X and XI. The caissons for the shafts are of structural steel, with double walls, filled between with concrete, including a cross-wall between and parallel to the tunnels. All these structures were fitted for sinking with compressed air, if that should prove necessary.
An attack made on the cross-wall from its southern side ended in total failure; his siege- engines were burnt, and the storming-parties repulsed at every point. The only course which remained was to march round to the north-western extremity of the plateau, carry the fort of Euryelus, and assail the Syracusans within their own lines.
At the north end of the cross-wall it will be observed that the blocked doorway noticed in the choir-aisle was not round-headed on this side, but segmental.
Nothing but a cross-wall, which rose above the court towards a little tower, touched this main wall. At the extremity of this last, where it broke off abruptly, both stopped.
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