Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 2).pdf/80

, in all probability, have taken their name from them;"—nor have the horn-works, he speaks of, any thing in the world to do with the horn-works of cuckoldom:—But the curtin, Sir, is the word we use in fortification, for that part of the wall or rampart which lies between the two bastions and joins them.—Besiegers seldom offer to carry on their attacks directly against the curtin, for this reason, because they are so well flanked. ('Tis the case of other curtains, quoth Dr. Slop, laughing). However, continued my uncle Toby, to make them sure, we generally choose to place ravelins before them, taking care only to extend them beyond the fossé or ditch:—The common men, who know very little of fortification, confound the ravelin and the half-moon together,— tho' they are very different things;—not in their figure or