Part 25 (2/2)

If you go to La Roche-Pont, ascend the ruins of the donjon. From this elevated point the view on a clear spring morning is very fine; towards the south it extends as far as the Saone, showing the little river Abonne, winding along the vale through meadows and orchards. On the north spreads the plateau covered with clumps of trees, and bounded only by the blue outlines of the hills of the Haute-Marne. At your feet the town with its ramparts looks like a vessel moored at the extremity of a promontory. We are reminded then of all the events which this little nook of ground has witnessed, of the ruins that have been acc.u.mulated by human pa.s.sion, and the blood that has been so lavishly shed. We fancy we hear the shouts with which these walls have so often echoed.

Nature however remains the same; the meadows continue to be enamelled with flowers, and clothe with a mantle of beauty the ruins that have been heaped up by the fury of men. A feeling of deep sadness comes over us, and we say to ourselves: ”What use is it all?” ”What use!” replies at once a voice in the depth of our our soul. ”What is the use of independence? What good is the love of our country? What use is the memory of self-sacrifice?” Do not blaspheme, Egoistic Philosophy; be silent before centuries of struggle--before that layer upon layer of the bones of the dead, and those heaps of successive ruins which have formed our country's soil. Though often ravaged, this hill has never been abandoned by its inhabitants; the more affronts it has had to sustain, the more its children have become attached to its side, the more they hold to the soil that has been impregnated with the blood of their ancestors, and the more hatred they feel towards those who would attempt to detach them from this ancestral tomb. This is patriotism; and it is the only human pa.s.sion that can be dignified with the t.i.tle of holy. War makes nations, and war raises them again when they sink down under the influence of material interests. War is struggle, and we find struggle everywhere in nature; it secures greatness and duration to the best educated, the most capable, the n.o.blest, the most worthy to survive. And in the present day more than ever, success in war is the result of intelligence and of that which develops intelligence--Work.

Whenever what is called fraternity between nations shall become a reality, the reign of senile barbarism and of shameful decay will not be far distant.

Before this rock on which so many generations have fought to defend their independence, to resist aggression and to keep the rapacious foreigner at a distance, it is not an expression of regret that is called for--it is rather of homage to the dead which hearts full of grat.i.tude cannot withhold. They do not ask for tears but for imitation.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 65: The battle of Champigny had extended our lines to four thousand six hundred and twenty yards from the Fort de la Faisanderie.]

EXPLANATION

OF SOME OF THE TECHNICAL TERMS USED IN THIS BOOK.

AGGER (Latin), terrace, or platform, which the Romans raised before the fronts attacked, for the purpose of setting up their projectile machines, securing a commanding position, and masking the troops a.s.sembled for an a.s.sault.

BAILEY, fore-court; court of the outer works, or yard. The stables and the lodgings for the garrison were usually disposed in the bailey of the strong castles of the Middle Ages (see p. 169).

BALISTA (Latin, _onager_), an engine for propelling stones, worked by means of strongly-twisted cords.

BARBICAN, exterior defence protecting an entrance, and allowing a large a.s.semblage of men to prepare for sorties, or to protect a retreat.

Barbicans were either of masonry or earth, or constructed of a simple palisade. They were always of a circular form (see p. 169).

BASTION, an earthwork, cased externally with masonry, salient beyond the main body of the fortress, and possessing two faces, two flanks, and a gorge, so as to sweep the ground without, to cross the fires, and to flank the curtains. The gorge of bastions is open, closed, or retrenched. Bastions are said to be full when their _terre-plein_ is level with the curtains; empty, when their _terre-plein_ is beneath that level; armed with a cavalier, when upon their _terre-plein_ is raised a battery of earth which commands the country without over the parapets (see p. 278, 310).

BOULEVARD, an earthwork--in use at the time when fire artillery had attained a certain degree of importance--for placing cannon outside ancient defences still preserved. Boulevards were of all forms--square, circular, and triangular (see p. 229).

BRAIE, an exterior defence of trifling height, protecting the foot of the ramparts, and hindering the enemy's approach.

BRETeCHE, timber construction intended to strengthen and to flank a front or a salient (see p. 184).

CAT, timber gallery, low and long, covered with a longitudinal very pointed and strongly ironed roof. Placed on wheels, these galleries were advanced to the foot of the walls, after the ditch was filled up, and enabled the miners to begin working into the masonry under cover. The name _rat_ was given to these galleries in some provinces.

CATAPULT, engine for shooting large darts by means of a powerful bow.

CAVALIER, earthwork raised in the middle of a bastion, or upon any point of the defence, to command the exterior. In the sixteenth century the besieging armies erected cavaliers around defences to mount cannon upon them. Our siege batteries are the modern a.n.a.logues of these works (see p. 237, 312).

CHEMISE, exterior inclosure of a donjon; the chemise of the donjon consists of a wall which leaves a s.p.a.ce of some yards between it and the donjon. A postern with a drawbridge gives a communication between one of the rooms of the donjon and the rampart walk of the chemise (see p.

201).

CLAVICULA (Latin), exterior defence, raised outside the gates of a camp, and which obliged those who endeavoured to enter to present their flank to the defenders of the ramparts (see p. 92).

COVERED WAY, road formed on the counterscarp and protected by the relief of the glacis (see p. 307).

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