438 



SIEBENBURGEN 



S1KCK 



modelled on riiny and other classics; his poems 

 (twenty fmir ldis) comprise panegyrics on three 

 emperoni and two bombastic epithalamiums. 



See the Abbe Chaix, .S<iiii< Sidoine A/iollinaire ft ton 

 8iMt (2 vol. Clermont, 1867 68); works by Cliatelain 

 (Paris, 1879) nd Kaufmann ((Joitingeu, 1864); Hodg- 

 kin's Italy and her Invader, (vol. if. book iii.; 1880). 

 There are editions of the works of Sidonius by Baret 

 (Paris, 1879) and Lutjohann (lierlin, 1888). 



Si'b'llbHrgcn ('Seven Castles'), the (Jerman 

 name of the former principality of Transylvania. 



SielM'Iltf'lirjje, <>r 'Seven Mountains,' in 

 l;lieni-h I'm i:i. mi tin- right bank of tlie Rhine, 

 aUint '20 mill's above Cologne. The highest is the 

 6lberg (1522 feet); but the most famous is the 

 Drachenfels (q.v.). The crags are crowned with 

 ruins of baronial castles of the 12th century. 

 Trachyte is quarried amongst these hills ; from 

 them the stone was obtained for the greater part 

 of Cologne Cathedral. 



Siobold, PHILIPP FRANZ VON, physician and 

 botanist, was born at Wiirzburg, 15th February 

 1796, became sanitary officer to the Dutch in 

 Batavia, and, accompanying the Dutch embassy to 

 Japan, did much to make Japan known to the 

 western world. He spent 1826-30 in Japan, wrote 

 on the country, its flora, and language, and died 

 18th October 1866. His brother KARL THEODOR 

 ERNST VON SIEBOLD, anatomist, was born 16th 

 February 1804, and became famous as professor at 

 Munich (1853), where he died, 7th April 1885. He 

 wrote works on the Invertebrata (Eng. trans. 

 1857), on tapeworms, on parthenogenesis, on sal- 

 amanders, and on the fresh-water fishes of central 

 Europe. 



Sledlce, a town, or rather a large village, of 

 Poland, 57 miles by rail E. by S. of Warsaw, is 

 the capital of the "province of the same name. 

 Top. 12,950. Area of province, 5535 sq. m. ; pop. 

 671,538. 



Siege (Fr., 'a seat,' 'a sitting down'). When 

 the assault of a fortified place would be too hazard- 

 ous and costly and its reduction by blockade too 

 slow, recourse is had to the regular siege or system- 

 atic attack. In order to cross the open ground 

 swept by the fire of the fortress with as little loss 

 as imssible the besieger makes use of sunken roads 

 or trenches. The revetments having l>een breached 

 by his artillery or mines, he continues these roads 

 through the breaches into the place. To prevent 

 these approaches l>eing enfiladed by the guns of 

 the fortress they are made at first in zigzags ; the 

 prolongations of which are directed so as to clear 

 the works of the fronts attacked, and, when a 

 direct advance Incomes necessary, they are pro- 

 vided with traverses at short intervals, or blimli il 

 tap is used i.e. a trench covered in with timber 

 and earth. Two or three such lines of approach 

 are used. To protect and connect them lateral 

 trenches are formed from which large Ixxlies of 

 troops can fire upon any sortie that may l>e made. 

 These are termed parallels, being parallel to the 

 general front of the parts attacked. The jii-xl 

 parallel is made at as short a distance as ]>ossihle 

 (perhaps 1000 yards) from the fortress, and its con- 

 struction follows the disorganisation of the de- 

 fenders' artillery by that of the attack from its 

 first position, often 4OOO yards from the fortress ; 

 the gerund would I* rather less than midway 

 Iwtween the first and the most advanced works of 

 the fortress, so that the supporting troops in it may 

 lie nearer the working parties in the approaches 

 than the enemy ; the third parallel would generally 

 lie about 100 yards in front of the salients of the 

 covered way. Parallels are useful also to connect 

 tin- batteries which, dispersed over a wide area, 

 will concentrate their fire upon the revetment- of 



the ditch and rnmparts, or ui<m the guns of the 

 defence. These latter, restricted as they are to a 

 comparatively small space. must eventually be 

 outnuiiilwrcd and overpowered ; but, if the invest- 

 ment is imperfect, as at the siege of Sevastopol in 

 1854-55, an active defender may long delay tliis 

 disaster, especially if the fortress has an outer 

 girdle of detached forts, for in that case at least 

 two of the forts must U- taken by regular niegi> 

 before further advance is made, and the ground 

 between them (1000 yards and upward*) lends 

 itself to the construction of new batteries to meet 

 those of the attack. Hut the resources in men, 

 guns, and ammunition must, l>y the nature of the 

 case, be largely in favour of the attacker, and 

 therefore, if persevered in, the siege is sure to 

 succeed. 



The ancients used to surround the place attacked 

 with a high bank of earth, called a fine of circmn- 

 rii/liitiini, and protected ihemsehc* against attack 

 from the outside by another called a line of contra- 

 nil/iiti'mi, and a similar arrangement wax in vogue 

 until the middle of the IHili century. Now a cover- 

 ing field-army is employed, wlltah. by its greater 

 mobility, in able to meet the relieving army many 

 miles from the In-sieging force, and a chain of 

 fortified localities takes the place of the continuous 

 line of circunivallation. 



In order that a siege may be safely undertaken 

 the strength of the besieger should IHJ about four 

 times that of the garrison. Tim*, in the case of a 

 small place with a garrison of 5000 men the line of 

 investment would probably be 12 miles long, and 

 could l>e maintained by three detachments of 2500 

 men each, the guards of the trenches would lie 5000 

 and working parties 8000 a total of 20,500. In 

 1870 Strasburg, with a garrison of 20,000, was 

 captured by a besieging force 60,000 strong. Metz 

 was starved into surrender, the presence of so many 

 men (some 170,000) besides the proper garrison 

 only hastening that result. Had this large _en- 

 trenched camp been held by its regular garrison 

 of 40,000 men it would not have fallen to a besieger 

 with less than 120,000, which is more than half the 

 numbers actually employed. 



The siege tntuu employed in 1870 by the 

 Germans were comparatively small, owing to the 

 badly prepared state of the French fortresses. 

 Thus, at Strasburg only 243 pieces were used, 

 firing 200,000 rounds in thirty six days, while at 

 Selwistopol the allies mounted (i98 pieces of artillery, 

 and in three days these fired 150,000 rounds. 



The siege parks, or main depflts, for the artillery 

 and engineer trains must be out of range of the 

 enemy's guns, containing as they do powder, 

 ammunition, guns, and warlike stores of all de- 

 scriptions. The batteries necessary are ttifitadt 

 batteries, placed on the prolongations of all the 

 important works attacked; counter lotteries, to 

 overcome the fire of the works bearini: upon the 

 field of attack; mortar and ////;./ batteries, to 

 search by high-angle fire the interior of all the 

 works ftttaeked . and liirtir/u'iiif bat levies. In lireacli 

 by curved lire the scarps and Hanking casemates. 

 Light pieces, such as the seven-pounder mountain 

 gun and machine guns, are placed in the second 

 and third parallels, and in the demi-parallcls or 

 lodgments, 100 to 160 yards long, made on each 

 approach aliout half-way between these parallels. 



Heyond the third parallel the besieger will 

 probably 1- met by counter-mines, and himself 

 nave to' resort to mining in order to carry out I he 

 crowning of the covered way. He will then con- 

 nect his approaches by a fourth parallel, establish 



batteries and lodgments on the crest of th >vered 



way, and from them mine down to the back of the 

 counterscarp, which he can blow in previous to sap- 

 ping across the ditch and up the breaches. From 



