B R E 



that the pieces be joined clofe ihroaghout ; the folder only 

 iiolding in thofe places that touch. 



The method of brazing, among fmitlis, farriers, 5;c. is 

 by beating the two pieces, when hot, over one another ; 

 this is more properly called a'.-.'i///.;f . 



BRAZZA, fo called from the town of Bnizzn, in do- 

 };niphy, an illand in the gulf of Venice, about lo leagues 

 long, and ,5 broad, near the coall of Dalmatia, oppofite to 

 Spalatro, and fubjeifl to Venice. N. lat. 4J'' 45'- 1'.- long. 

 16'" 1./. 



PRE', a river of Denmark, \^!licll ruus into the North 

 fia ; Ct miles S. W. of Tondcrn. 



DRE.-\, a fniall illand in the Pacific ocean, near the weft 

 foall of Nortii America. N. lat. 16° 38'. W. long. 



(,9^ r. 



Brea hfaJ, a cape on the fonth-weft coall of Ireland, 

 being the foutliwtil point of Valentia illand, in the county 

 of Kcn-y. N. lat. 51° 30'. W. long. 10° !<•'. 



13RE.\CH, in a general fenfe, denotes a break or rup- 

 ture in fome part of a fence or inclofure, wliethcr owing to 

 time or violence. The word is formed from the French 

 brecbci which fignifics the fame ; formed of tlie German 

 brer bin, to breai. 



Inimdation^, or overflowings of lands, are frequently 

 owing to breaches in the dikes, or lea-banks. Dagenham 

 breach is famous ; it was made in 1707, by a failure of the 

 Tlinmes wall, in a very high tide. The force wherewith it 

 bui"ft in upon the neighbouring level, tore up a large channel 

 or paffage for water a hundred yards wide, and in fome places 

 twenty feet deep, by which a multitude of iublerranean 

 trees, which liad been buried many agei before, were laid 

 bare. Phil. Tranf. N'' 3J5. p. 478. 



Breach, in the Mililary Ait, is an exteniive aperture, 

 gap, or opening made in any part of the works ol a town, 

 cither by battering the walls with artillery or fpringing 

 mines, in order to ftorm the place, or carry it by afFaiilt. 

 They lay, male gnod the breach, fortify the breach, make a 

 iodgment on the breach, Isfc. To clear the breach, is to remove 

 the ruins that it may be the better defended. 



The ancients were not provided with means fo effeftual 

 as our artillery to batter down the walls of fortified places. 

 The catapultje and balillx, redoubtable as they were in the 

 open field, or the attack of a camp, were not competent to 

 tliis effect. With the Greeks, the Romans, and other 

 rations of antiquity, it was neceffary to advance clofe under 

 tlie walls before they could make ufe of the ram, their prin- 

 cipal inllrumcnt of afiault. All the other operations of a 

 fiege ; the contlniftion of their aggcres or terraffcs, the 

 moving turrctts, tlie tclhidoes, galleries, and viiita;, were 

 only directed towards this principal objtft, that ot favouring 

 the approach of the ram towards the town. So long as 

 the bcfieged maintained ihemfelves in poireffiim of tiieir 

 walls, it was not pofTible to make ufe of this formidable 

 weapon. Moll of their machines, efpcciallv iiich us tended 

 to avert the effeil ot the ram, were dilpofcd lipon the para- 

 pet of the front attacked ; and mailers of their battlements, 

 they galled the beuegers witli inceiTant ihowers of darts and 

 arrows, large Hones, enli.'-e beams, burning pitch, melted 

 lead, and every kind of niiffile anus. Thcv directed their 

 principal machines agaiiiii the ram, whole force was ufelcfs 

 the initant iliequilibruiia was diilurbed. But as foon as the 

 catapultrc and balilfse of the affailant had cleared the walls of 

 the placcj and the befjcgeri, protected by their terraffes, had 

 filled the ditch, no obftacle remained to prevent the apphca- 

 tion ot the battering ram. Its effeft was inevitable the 

 nioment the vibration of the machine was undillurbcd and 

 f;ee. The pluce v.'js then redused to the lall e^itremity; 



B R E 



and if the garrifon had raflily Ir.ld out until the ram had 

 llruck the wall, " fi arius murum tetigiffct," no capitulation 

 was afterwards granteil, unlefs upon the fevered terms. 



The ram generally approached the place under the pro- 

 te£liou of the tclludo, a kind of covered gallery, within 

 which it was either fufpended in ccpiilibrio, or relied on a 

 bale, and worked by a conlideral)l<- number of hand;. In 

 this lituation, no tower or wall of mafoury, however lliick, 

 eo'.ild for any length of tim; relill the tremendous (hock 

 wiiich accompanied its blows. The ram, howevir, was not 

 idways the method ufed by the ancients to effeft a breach. 

 They lometimcs employed their orygmatn, inbteraneous pal- 

 fages, or mines, which, having earned completely under the 

 front of the place attacked, they iullained the walls by 

 enormous beams, until the fpace undermined was judged 

 fuflioienl, and then fating (ire at the fa-iie time to all tliefe 

 beam.s, their fall infaliib!) brought along with it gieai p.^it 

 of the fortilicnli ]n, and opened a wide breach for the af- 

 failaiits to mount over. 



Among the ancients, the art of defence, the moment that 

 the belicgers had hlled the ditch, planted their machines, 

 and brought the battering ram up to the foot of lljc wall, 

 bore no proportion to that of attack. Several means, how- 

 ever, were invented to prevent orkircn the eflfrl of this lall 

 terrible maclii)ie, particularly at the (lege of Piat.ca, in the 

 Peloponnedan war. The belieged made ufe ol iiool'es or 

 pincers, with which they caught the head of the ram, and 

 either drew it up to the walls, or at leall diilurbed its 

 equilibrium for a confiderable time, and fpoiled the effect of 

 its (Iroke. Tliey alio made ufe of a large beam, hung 

 horizontidly, by heavy iron chains, to two immenfe woodea 

 levers, planted upon the battlements. This, when they 

 beheld the ram about to commence its aclion, they elevated 

 to a gre.nt height, and letting it fall luddcnly upon the 

 machine, it caufcd the head of the ram lo plunge, and thus 

 conliderably deadened, if not entirely dellroycd, the im- 

 petuohty of its blow. Even when tlie breach was made, 

 the diligence of the garrilon lometimes provided the means 

 of a new defence. During the liege, it was cullomary tu 

 budd a new wall, in fonn of a crefcent, behind that againlb 

 which the enemy direfted their principal efforts. 1'his much 

 dilhearteuedthe be!iegers,who, whentliey flattered themfelvea 

 with having overcome all rehllance, and holding the town 

 at their mercy, were thus often obhged to recommence the 

 prodigious labour of their aggercs, vinex, and other 

 machines, agalnll the re-entering wall : a new labour 

 equally dLlScult and dangerous, as in the procefs their flaulcs 

 were laid open to the darts, Hones, and other miffiles of 

 the enemy. The celebrated I'leges of antiquity afford many 

 inllances of this metiiod of protrafting a defence. The 

 fieges of Platiea, by Archidamus ; oJ Halicarnalfns, by 

 Alexander the Great ; and of Rhodes, by Demetrius Pohor- 

 cetes, are the moll remarkable in the Grecian hillory. On 

 the latter occafion, the town was preferved by the coiiftruc- 

 tion of a fecond wall, when the machines of the Macedo- 

 nians had overthrown the full, and made a very practicable 

 breach. At Athens, when befieged by Sylla, in his war 

 agaiull Mithridates, the fame expedient was made ufe of ; 

 but without the fame fuccefs. lint ancient hillory affords 

 no example of a liege where this mode of defenei; was car- 

 ried to fo great a length as at Saguntum, when attacked by 

 Hannibal. Several walls were repeatedly raifed one after 

 another, to protect thofe parts of the town in which the 

 Carthaginians had not got footing ; and by dint of thefe 

 fucceffive inclofures, the inhabitants maintained a bloody 

 relillance for nearly eight months: The fatal confequenccs 

 of this obllinacy are fuf&cieiitly knowu. Guichard, Me^ 



moire) 



