CHAPTER VII.
Weapons of war.—Artillery.—Train of artillery.—Chevaux-de-frise.—Bows and arrows.—The old archer.—The musket.—The bayonet.—Captain Von Selmnitz.—Broad-swords.—Highlanders.—Artillery and stores sent to Spain.—James II. of Scotland.—Buonaparte and Colonel Evain.—Wooden cannon.—Brass twenty-four-pounder from the wreck of the Royal George.—The brass sixty-eight-pounder in the Tower, called the ‘Great Harry,’ a beautiful mortar.—The new destructive power.
“Can you tell us something about the artillery, uncle? There must be a great many pieces of cannon used in an army?”
“There are; and if you never know more about them than the information you get from me, so much the better; better to hear of them than to be among them. I will say a little about the weapons of war generally, but can only glance at the subject: it would take me a week to tell you everything, if I had it all at the tip of my tongue.”
“Well, so that your account is not too short, we must be satisfied.”
“As the world turns round, the weapons in use among soldiers and sailors and the customs of warfare change.
“When the twang of the bow is heard no more,
Then muskets rattle and cannons roar.