Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 22, 2025
'Tis true, said I, correcting the proposition, the Bastile is not an evil to be despised; but strip it of its towers fill up the fosse, unbarricade the doors call it simply a confinement, and suppose 'tis some tyrant of a distemper and not of a man, which holds you in it, the evil vanishes, and you bear the other half without complaint.
No church-bells tolled for his death, and the street-children did not go on their way singing, as they always do, to the sound of funeral bells. "Viens, corps, ta fosse t'attend!" for Pere S was a heretic, and could not have slept in consecrated ground had he died before the République Française removed religious restrictions from all burial-places.
But Noircarmes had discovered a few points where neglect had allowed the fosse to be filled almost up to the level of the natural surface, and of these he determined to avail himself in storming. He drew together all the scattered corps by which he had invested the town, and during a tempestuous night carried the suburb of Berg without the loss of a single man.
Half an hour later, amid the shouts and cheers of the Buffaloes, the bridge was dropped across the fosse, and the gates upon the further side were flung open. Taking due precautions against treachery, we marched on into the town.
In it have been found, besides these skeletons, stone axes and knives and several ornaments, with holes through them, by means of which, with a cord passing through these perforations they could be worn by their owners. On the south side of this tumulus, and not far from it, was a semicircular fosse, which, when I first saw it, was 6 feet deep.
But Noircarmes had discovered a few points where neglect had allowed the fosse to be filled almost up to the level of the natural surface, and of these he determined to avail himself in storming. He drew together all the scattered corps by which he had invested the town, and during a tempestuous night carried the suburb of Berg without the loss of a single man.
Such is the plan and direction of the walls, which, by the prudence of Romulus and his royal successors, are bounded on all sides by steep and rugged hills; and the only aperture between the Esquiline and Quirinal mountains is enclosed by a formidable rampart, and surrounded by an immense fosse.
The unceasing fire left the inhabitants no time to repair the ramparts, which filled the fosse with their debris, and opened many a breach for the enemy to enter by. Certain of utter destruction, they surrendered next morning at discretion after a bombardment of six-and- thirty hours without intermission, and three thousand bombs had been thrown into the city.
The horses were picketed round the castle, a supply of forage being placed there for their use, while the carts were packed closely by the fosse, so as to form an obstacle to any of the assailants who might try to pass. At daybreak they were again run across the planks, the horses brought round and harnessed, the scouts being sent out as on the day before.
"Speak of the Devil," whispered La Fosse in my ear, and, moved by the words and by the significance of his glance, I turned in my chair. The door had opened, and under the lintel stood the thick-set figure of the Comte de Chatellerault. Before him a lacquey in my escutcheoned livery of red-and-gold was receiving, with back obsequiously bent, his hat and cloak.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking