A quantity of palisades upright,

So placed as to impede the fire of those

Who held the place, and to assist the foe's.[372]

XI.

This circumstance may serve to give a notion

Of the high talents of this new Vauban:

But the town ditch below was deep as Ocean,

The rampart higher than you'd wish to hang:

But then there was a great want of precaution

(Prithee, excuse this engineering slang),