Page:15 decisive battles of the world Vol 2 (London).djvu/80

72 first siege in which any important use appears to have been made of artillery. And even at Orleans both besiegers and besieged seem to have employed their cannons merely as instruments of destruction against their enemy's men and not to have trusted to them as engines of demolition against their enemy's walls and works. The efficacy of cannon in breaching solid masonry, was taught Europe by the Turks, a few years afterwards, at the memorable siege of Constantinople. In our French wars, as in the wars of the classic nations, famine was looked on as the surest weapon to compel the submission of a well-walled town; and the great object of the besiegers was to effect a complete circumvallation. The great ambit of the walls of Orleans, and the facilities which the river gave for obtaining succours and supplies, rendered the capture of the town by this process a matter of great difficulty. Nevertheless, Lord Salisbury and Lord Suffolk, who succeeded him in command of the English, after his death by a cannon-ball, carried on the necessary works with great skill and resolution. Six strongly fortified posts, called bastilles, were formed at certain intervals round the town; and the purpose of the English engineers was to draw strong lines between them.