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They are strengthened by four batteries, on each of which is 

 mounted from five to ten pieces of heavy ordnance. But the 

 whole are in very bad order. The buttresses, undermined 

 by the surge, have yielded to the weight of the platform ; and 

 the parapet is choked up on both sides by the shifting sand. 



" The castle is a regular pentagon, consisting of five bas- 

 tions, connected by curtains, and surrounded by ajausse bray 

 and dry ditch. On these bastions there were originally 

 mounted not fewer than seventy pieces of cannon. This 

 formidable train are now dropping off" their carriages, and 

 the mouldering parapet resuming its ancient position in the 

 ditch. On the outside of the castle ditch, and close to the 

 landing place, stands Imhoif Batter}^, which has been 

 thoroughly repaired, and mounts forty pieces of cannon, 

 besides several heavy mortars. There are lodgings in the 

 castle for the commander of the forces, and the commandant; 

 besides barracks for a regiment of infantry, and a variety of 

 offices for the civil and military department. 



" The battery of Roggebay, four hundred yards from Im- 

 hoff, is nearly on a level with the sea, and carries twenty 

 pieces of cannon, of various calibre. As you advance along 

 the shore, you arrive successively at the Amsterdam Battery, 

 the Chiffone, and the Great Mouillie ; and, on a small emi- 

 nence at some distance from the shore, you see the battery 

 called Keek in the Pot. All these batteries, with the excep- 

 tion of the Amsterdam, are mere Jleches, without any defence 

 on the land side. The latter had originally a second tier of 

 guns ; but the casemates are now occupied by prisoners of 

 war, and by the malefactors condemned to public labour. 

 Though this battery is secured by a rampart in the rear, it 

 could be easily taken by a coup de main, owing to a vice in 

 its construction on that side, to which there is probably no 

 parallel in the whole annals of fortification. The rampart 

 consists of a revelment of five feet high ; and a sloping turf 

 parapet, of an equal height, leaves on the edge of it a berme, 

 sufficiently broad to afford a firm footing to the assailants. 

 There is, on the inside of the rampart, a wall which rises six 

 feet above the terrepleine, and, at the height of four feet, is 



