24 USE DURING SIEGES. [CHAP. i. 



belief. Thus were the legends enriched by the poverty 

 of art. This tale is told of St. Thomas Aquinas, of St. 

 Basil, of St. Gregory the Great, of St. Hilary of Aries, 

 of eight other saints of less mark and note ; and, finally, 

 we may add, of Mahomet."* 



Warfare has, however, given the most frequent occa- 

 sion for the employment of Carrier Pigeons. The 

 clever contrivance of Brutus is thus mentioned by 

 Pliny, and we quote it, although it is a well-known 

 passage, and has even had the honour of being para- 

 phrased in verse : " But they have also been used as 

 messengers in important matters : during the siege 

 of Mutina, Decius Brutus sent letters tied to their 

 feet into the camp of the Consuls. What service did 

 Anthony derive from his trenches, and his vigilant block- 

 ade, and even from his nets stretched across the river, 

 while the winged messenger was traversing the air ? " f 



But the winged messenger, like every other human 

 instrument, sometimes fails to execute its office, as the 

 worthy Fuller tells us in his " Historic of the Holy 

 Warre." The Christians " began the siege of the citie 

 of Jerusalem on the North (being scarce assaultable on 

 any other side by reason of steep and broken rocks), 

 and continued it with great valour. On the fourth day 

 after, they had taken it, but for want of scaling-ladders. 

 Nearer than seven miles off, there grew no stick of 

 bignesse. I will not say, that since our Saviour was 

 hanged on a tree, the land about that citie hath been 

 cursed with a barrenness of wood. As for the Chris- 

 tians' want of ladders, that was quickly supplied : for 

 the Genoans arriving with a fleet in Palestine, 



* Edinburgh Review,, April, 1849, p. 385. f Lib. x. 53. 



