146 MILITARY SCIENCES. 



i. Windows, Loopholes. The windows and loopholes in the old walls 

 and towers are generally very narrow, and the first lay so high (pi. 44, 

 fig. 8) that they could not easily be scaled. The loopholes are very narrow 

 at the outer side, and grow wider inwards. Their forms are various. 

 PL 46, f^gs, 12-19, give the most common, some of which are also shown 

 on pi. 45, figs. 6 and 14. The loopholes were so constructed, moreover, 

 that even the balls or bolts which struck in them could not penetrate into 

 the interior of the room or tower. PL 46, figs. 20 and 21, show the sec- 

 tion of such loopholes : AB, is the opening of the loophole in the wall ; 

 CA is a small vault, against which the ball or bolt coming from below, as 

 from D, for example, must strike and rebound, instead of passing into the 

 interior. 



k. Fortress Towers, Donjons. The interior of a burgh or fortress was 

 usually, as has already been mentioned, protected by a particular work, the 

 redoubt. The fortress-towers, donjons as they were called, either formed 

 part of the enceinte itself or lay entirely isolated, as in the former castle of 

 Vincennes (pL 4^, fig. 14, plan ; j^^. 15, perspective view). Where these 

 towers are extensive enough, they have also a redoubt in and for themselves. 

 The walls of these donjons are of extraordinary thickness, and, not to 

 diminish the interior space, the stairs are usually either in a tower by them- 

 selves, or wholly or in part in the thickness of the wall of the main tower. 

 The tower of Montlhery {fig. 5, ground plan, fig. 6, view of the stairs) 

 affords a good illustration of this. A is the interior hexagonal space of the 

 very thick tower. The stairs are carried up, at first, in a separate tower 

 B, and pass from that, by means of a strait gallery in the staircase, into the 

 wall of the tower. The walls have loopholes, which light at the same time 

 the interior of the tower and the staircase. In order to bring large objects 

 on to the tower, there were trap-doors in every story. The ground-floors 

 served as magazines, and could be reached only from the interior of the 

 tower. The windows of the various stories were not one over the other, 

 and, from the great thickness of the walls, the recesses of these windows 

 made little rooms by themselves, which had stone seats (fig. 8). Some- 

 times very peculiar constructions are found in these donjons. An instance 

 of this is the tower of Clansayes, in the Department of Drome, which has 

 a different shape in every story (fig. 2). The ground-floor, designated by 

 A in our plan, forms a square with a pilaster buttress on each side. The 

 loopholes present a more complicated than effective system. The middle 

 story, of which B is the plan, forms a regular octagon, resting upon arches 

 turned in the wall. The third story, finally, is a perfect square with rounded 

 angles. 



I. Subterranean Space. Most castles, and particularly the donjons, 

 had a greater or less extent of subterranean space, which was devoted to 

 various uses. It was occupied generally for prisons or magazines ; some- 

 times there were long galleries running underneath the ditches and having 

 an exit far out in the open field, which were designed to afford means of 

 communication for the garrison with the world outside, when the fortress 

 was beleaguered. PL 44, fig. 9, represents a magazine under the donjon 

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