“Yes! that is clear enough, or they would all of them be soon starved to death.”
“Well do I remember, when the Duke of Wellington—he was a Marquis then—blockaded Pamplona, in Spain. He was about to besiege the place, but when he and Sir Richard Fletcher came to reconnoitre, they found that it was too strong for them; a sufficient number of troops could not be spared to reduce it, even if they had had ordnance, stores, and materials sufficient for the purpose, which they had not.”
“There were a great many soldiers inside the place, perhaps?”
“The garrison was considerable; but besides that the works were strong, and in good order. There were at least two hundred pieces of ordnance ready to play on the besiegers, and the city was defended on one side by the river, and covered on the other by the citadel. The siege was given up, and a blockade established instead.”
“And how was the blockade managed?”
“In a most masterly way. And Wellington gave a proof how well he could change his tactics when necessary, and act in the most efficient manner, according to the circumstances in which he found himself. He confined the garrison, and strengthened his own force, by throwing up works round the place, in the nearest heights, that commanded all the roads and communications with the enemy. There were nine redoubts, garrisoned on favourable points, within one thousand five hundred yards, and the remaining force was placed under cover in the villages, or bivouacked out of the range of the fire of the place. Marshal Soult advanced with a strong force to relieve the place, and penetrated so far as to be within a few miles of it; so that there was every reason to expect an attack from Soult, and a desperate sortie from the fortress at the same time, if the latter should be aware that relief was near at hand. Yet so well did the British commander provide for the danger, by reinforcing the advanced posts, pushing out chains of sentinels, and keeping the whole blockading force under arms, that not a single communication took place between the fortress and the troops under Marshal Soult. Think, boys, for a moment, of the skill on the part of the commander, and vigilance on the part of the men, to prevent a strong fortress, situated close to its own frontier, from holding the least communication with, or receiving the least information of their friends.”
“And was the place obliged to surrender?”
“It was. Let me now describe a bombardment, in few words. A town, city, or fortress, is bombarded by firing bombshells and rockets into it in order to set fire to it, to blow up the powder magazines, to knock down the houses, churches, and other edifices of the place, and to do as much damage as possible, that the place may be compelled to surrender.”
“Why do they fire bombshells, and not common balls?”
“Cannon shot are fired to batter down walls and outworks, but bombshells do more damage. When Mahomet II. besieged Constantinople in 1453 he battered it with huge stones so large that only four of them could be fired in a day. You must remember, boys, that bombshells and rockets are fired in the air, that they may fall down upon the place attacked, but cannon balls are fired straight. There is a way, it is true, of firing cannon, called ricochet-firing. The gun is loaded with but little powder, and the ball is thrown just over the parapet of the enemy, that it may fall into the works, and roll and bounce, destroying all before it.”