516 PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS. 



on the 4th of June, 1776, morning fair, noon cloudy, in the 

 the evening rain. N. B. More than two hundred pieces of 

 cannon fired in salutes ; quere, whether it occasioned the 

 rain ? This quere is particularly appropriate, as this is the 

 dry season on the Coromandel coast, and it did not rain af- 

 ter this till the 30th of the month. 



218. During the memorable siege of Valenciennes, by the 

 allied army, in the year 1793, it rained violently every day 

 soon after the heavy cannonading commenced. The allies 

 employed two hundred heavy ordnance, and the besieged 

 had above one hundred, and they were frequently all in ac- 

 tion at one time. The rain, in the opinion of the combat- 

 ants, was caused by the shaking of the clouds. 



219. M. Arago mentions several cases to show that great 

 fires and cannonading could not prevent thunder showers. 

 One was the Hotel Montesson, at the end of Rue de Mont 

 Blanc, which, on the first of July, 1810, was occupied by 

 Prince Schwartzenberg. It was the evening of a, fete given 

 by the Austrian ambassador to Napoleon and the Empress 

 Maria Louise. In the middle of the night an immense ball 

 room was burned, and the vast columns of flame, over 

 which the fire engines had little control, did not ward off a 

 tremendous thunder storm which visited the immediate 

 neighborhood. The lightnings followed with frightful ra- 

 pidity, and illuminated the whole firmament ; the thunder 

 rolled without intermission; finally, torrents of rain de- 

 scended, which distinguished the last embers of the fire. 



And again M. Arago says, " I shall here repeat two facts 

 which occur to my own memory, in the hope that they will 

 lead to analogous statements. The 25th of August, 1806, be- 

 ing the day selected for the attack of the islet and fortress of 

 Dannholm. near Stralsund, General Fririon, that he might 

 harass and fatigue the Swedish garrison, ordered it to be 

 cannonaded during the whole day. In spite of these pow- 

 erful and continued discharges of artillery, a violent thun- 



