That instant rush'd between, and rear'd his shield Was Gladdisdale. His sires had lived in peace, A requiem when they slept, and o'er them rais'd Then terror seized the host Their Chieftain dead. And lo! where on the wall, Bulwark'd of late by Gladdisdale so well, The son of Orleans stood, and swayed around His falchion, keeping thus at bay the foe, Till on the battlements his comrades sprang, And rais'd the shout of conquest. Then appall'd The English fled: nor fled they unpursued, For mingling with the foremost fugitives, The gallant Conrade rush'd; and with the throng, Well I deem And wisely did that daring Spaniard act At Vera-Cruz, when he his yet sound ships And by Otompan, on that bloody field When Mexico her patriot thousands pour'd, Fierce in vain valour on their ruffian foes. There was a portal to the English fort That opened on the wall; a speedier path * Vitruvius observes, in treating upon fortified walls, that near the towers the wall should be cut within-side the breadth of the tower, and that the ways broke in this manner should only be joined and continued by beams laid upon the two. extremities, without being made fast with iron; that in case the enemy should make himself master of any part of the wall, the besieged might remove this wooden bridge, and thereby prevent his passage to the other parts of the wall and into the towers. Rollin. The precaution recommended by Vitruvius had not been observed in the construction of the English walls. On each sideof every tower, a small door opened upon the wall; and the garrison of one tower are represented in the poem as flying by this way from one to shelter themselves in the other. With the enterprizing spirit and the defensive arms of chivalry, the subsequent events will not be found to exceed probability. For there the Maiden strove, and Conrade there, And he of lowly line, bravelier than whom Fought not in that day's battle. Of success Could wield no arms, so certain to bestow The foe bethought them: then with lesser force Beheld the hallowed banner on the tower Triumphant. Swift along the lofty wall The English haste to St. John's neighbouring fort, Mingled and waged the war: the combatants, Precipitate. But foremost of the French, Dealing destruction, Conrade rush'd along : Heedless of danger, he to the near fort Pass'd in the fight; nor did not then the Chief In the portal, and one moment looking back By numerous foes, who arrogant of power Threatened his single valour. He the while But of his own strength conscious, and the post To one alone fit passage, from above O'erbrow'd by no out-jutting* parapet, Whence death might crush him. He in double mail Was arm'd; a massy burgonet, well tried *The machicolation: a projection over the gate-way of a town or castle, contrived for letting fall great weights, scalding water &c. on the heads of any assailants who might have got close to the gate. Machecollare, or machecoulare, says Coke, is to make a warlike device over a gate or other passage like to a grate, through which scalding water, or ponderous or offensive things may be cast upon the assaylants." |