f^isit to Antwerp at the Capitulation of 1833. 235 



This casemate was in the salient angle. The parapet, or wall of turf, 

 which tops the rampart, was on the left side much damaged ; sand-bags 

 had been hastily used to repair it, and it was thickly strewed with flattened 

 musquet balls, which latter certain Englishmen were busily collecting for 

 the edification of their fair countrywomen at home. 



Under the rampart of the right face passed a brick tunnel or sally-port, 

 communicating by means of a draw-bridge with the opposite glacis. Be- 

 hind the terre-plein, or flat space forming the body of the place, was the 

 shattered pont de secours, the destruction of which had cut off the only di- 

 rect communication between the garrison and their comrades. Near this, 

 men were diligently employed in dragging the ditch for broken musquets 

 and charged shells, taking care to unload the latter immediately, and stow 

 away the powder in safety. We learned that they became entitled to a 

 slight recompense, upon delivering each shell and pound of powder so ob- 

 tained at the magazine. Their fishery had been very successful. 



Quitting the demi-lune by the sally-port, we crossed the ditch upon the 

 draw-bridge, which, however, the shot had effectually prevented from per- 

 forming its oflice in future. 



We now came to a series of trenches with a strong stockade ; these had 

 been prepared previous to the siege, to enable the garrison to throw troops, 

 unhurt by the fire of the enemy, into St. Laurent : after its capture, the 

 French advanced along them until they became exposed to the guns of the 

 citadel : and then throwing up a strong rampart and parapet, they placed 

 nmsquetry behind it, and effected a union with their own works on the left 

 of the demi-lune. This rampart rested upon the salient of the glacis ; a 

 little in the rear, towards the gorge of the lunette, was a long pit, covered 

 with planks and earth, a sort of a guard-house. 



Coasting along the margin of the citadel ditch, we came to the exterior 

 of the demi-lune behind the lunette Kehl, which differs only from that last 

 described, in having no pont des secours, the needful reinforcements being 

 supplied by a more circuitous route. The works in this quarter, having 

 suffered comparatively little, afforded a good opportunity of studying more 

 closely the nature of the communication between a demi-lune and its 

 lunette. 



The lunette is a couple of liundred yards or more in advance; its form 

 is, to speak generally, that of an isosceles triangle, the apex towards the 

 enemy ; the two sides are protected by a ditch, tiic counterscarp of which 

 is usually without a rcvCtcmcnt or lining wall ; the base or gorge is defended 

 by a wall pierced with loop-holes for musquctry, and called the gorge-tvall, 

 in the centre of which is a porta!, with strong folding gates. The ditch 

 terminates on either side abruptly, communicating with that of the citadel 

 only by means of a covered drain. Behind the wall, the earth, for a few 

 yards' space, is marked out into squares, like those of a chess-board ; from 

 eacli alternate space, a pyramid having been excavated, is placed upon the 



