For my humble part in this eventful story, I have much indulgence to request. To give such an account of the Great Sieges of History as the subject deserved, in one volume, was a thing impossible; and yet that was my task. The details of most of the sieges I have been obliged to curtail, and to entirely omit some which, I fear, may be looked for by those who are locally interested in them. Nevertheless, I have spared neither labour nor research; and if earnestness of purpose and honesty of intention merit approbation, I may, I trust, hope for as much as such a work deserves.

In the arrangement of the sieges, after taking the first one to which each place had been subjected in chronological order, I judged it best to carry on the account so as to give a continuous sketch of the sieges, or, in other words, of the history of the country or city in question. After the first perusal, such a book as this will be considered a work of reference, and, in that view, this plan must be the best. For the same reason I have admitted many sieges that cannot be classed as “great,” because they formed connecting links between the large ones. Without them, the unlearned reader would be surprised, when next his attention was drawn to a city which had cost one power immense sacrifices to obtain, to find it in the possession of another.

As no two historians or chronologers agree about ancient dates, I have had much trouble in settling the periods at which sieges out of the regular pale of history took place. In such cases my best plan was to adopt the opinion of the highest authority, and, wherever there was a doubt, and his name was available, I have followed Archbishop Ussher.

In accordance with my plan, I have in no instance considered myself a scientific instructor. I have said that the perusal of this book might be beneficial to military students, but I have not contemplated that all young men of that class were to become only engineers. It is the part of the engineer to carry on his operations in accordance with the rules he has been taught; but it is the higher duty of the Captain to be alive to the CHANCES of the siege, as well as observant of its scientific progress. It has been my business to relate the events, and, to a commander of genius, these are as rich in instruction as the mere school-rules of his awful art.

W. R.

LIST OF SIEGES.

Page
Abydos[215]
Acre, St. Jean de[399]
Agrigentum[157]
Aï[5]
Alexandria[262]
Algiers[463]
Antioch[317]
Antwerp[490], [595]
Argos[188]
Arras[511]
Athens[131]
Azoth[87]
Babylon[116]
Bactra[4]
Badajos[569]
Bagdad[422]
Barcelona[534]
Beauvais[447]
Belgrade[434]
Bergen-op-Zoom[502]
Bommel[532]
Burgos, Castle of[578]
Byblos[130]
Byzantium[159]
Cahors[479]
Carthagena[208]
Carthage[223]
Cassel[423]
Cassovia[432]
Castillon[444]
Ciudad Rodrigo[575]
Constantinople[572]
Corinth[192]
Corioli[123]
Cremona[218]
Damascus[397]
Dover[421]
Edessa[365]
Falerii[126]
Frederikshall[521]
Gaza[184]
Gibraltar[536]
Grenada[449]
Ismaïl[525]
Jerusalem[12]
Kaibar[371]
Lacedæmon[187]
Leyden[475]
Liége[445]
Lisbon[397]
Livron[478]
Lyons[169]
Mæestricht[482]
Magdeburg[505]
Malta[498]
Marseilles[259]
Messina[189]
Milan[287]
Naples[357]
Nineveh[85]
Orleans[297]
Ostend[501]
Palmyra278
Paris[237]
Pavia[309]
Persepolis[185]
Platææ[127]
Ravenna[315]
Rhodes[162]
Rimini[258]
Rochelle, La[426]
Rome[58]
Romorantin[425]
Samaria[55]
Saragossa[561]
Sardis[111]
Schweidnitz[522]
Sebastopol[600]
Sebastian, St.[585]
Seringapatam[559]
Sinope[236]
Stralsund[517]
Syracuse[138]
Tarentum[196]
Thebes, Bœotia[6]
Thebes, Palestine[9]
Toulouse[233]
Tournai[289]
Troy[10]
Troyes[433]
Tunis[197]
Turin[507]
Tyre[90]
Utica[210]
Vachtendonck[500]
Valenciennes[469]
Veii[124]
Vienna[451]
Verchères[516]
Weinsberg[395]

THE
GREAT SIEGES OF HISTORY.