Bass Rock. An isle in the Frith of Forth, Southern Scotland; granted to the Landers in 1316; purchased for a state prison, 1671; taken by the Jacobites, 1690; surrendered, 1694; granted to the Dalrymples, 1706.
Bastard, or Batarde (Fr.). An ancient piece of ordnance of about 8 pounds calibre, 91⁄2 feet long, and weighing 1950 pounds. It was invented by Jean Maurique de Lard, master-general of ordnance under Charles V. of France in 1535. He also had several bastards cast of a larger calibre. This term was also applied to guns of an unusual make or proportion, whether longer or shorter.
Bastarnæ, or Basternæ. A warlike German people who migrated to the country near the mouth of the Danube. They are first mentioned in the wars of Philip and Perseus against the Romans, and at a later period they frequently devastated Thrace, and were engaged in wars with the Roman governors of the province of Macedonia. In 30 B.C. they were defeated by Marcus Crassus, and driven across the Danube, and we find them, at a later period, partly settled between the Tyras (now Dniester) and Borysthenes (now Dnieper), and partly at the mouth of the Danube, under the name of Peucini, from their inhabiting the island of Peuce, at the mouth of the river.
Bastia. A fortified seaport town, and formerly capital of Corsica, on its northeast coast, and 67 miles from Ajaccio; besieged without success by the Piedmontese in 1748; captured by the English, 1794.
Bastide (Fr.). In ancient times, a bastion, block-house, fortress, or outer fortifications.
Bastile. Originally, a temporary wooden tower used in warfare; hence, any tower or fortification.
Bastile, or Bastille (Paris). A castle built by Charles V., king of France, in 1369, for the defense of Paris against the English; completed in 1383, and afterwards used as a state prison. Henry IV. and his veteran army assailed it in vain in the siege of Paris during the war, 1587-94. On July 14-15, 1789, it was pulled down by the populace, the governor and other officers seized, conducted to the Place de Grève, their hands and heads were cut off, and the heads carried on pikes through the streets.
Bastinado. A punishment among the Turkish soldiers, which is performed by beating them with a cane or flat of a sword on the soles of their feet.
Bastion. A work consisting of two faces and two flanks, all the angles being salient. Two bastions are connected by means of a curtain, which is screened by the angle made by the prolongation of the corresponding faces of two bastions, and flanked by the line of defense. Bastions contain, sheltered by their parapets, marksmen, artillery, platform, and guards. They are protected by galleries of mines, and by demi-lunes and lunettes outside the ditch, and by palisades, if the ditch is inundated. The [faces] of the bastion are the parts exposed to being enfiladed by ricochet batteries, and also to being battered in breach.
Bastion, Composed, is where two sides of the interior polygon are very unequal, which makes the gorges also unequal.