Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

lines. In the first were the men at arms belonging to the counties of Boulogne and Ponthieu, along with the greater part of those who served for pay; the second consisted of the Bretons and Poitevins; and the third was formed of the best troops of Normandy, led by the Duke in person. In front of each of these columns or batallia were drawn up several lines of footmen clothed in light armor, worn over a quilted cassock, and bearing either long bows or steel cross-bows. The Duke rode a Spanish horse, with which a rich Norman had presented him, on his return from a pilgrimage to Sant Iago, in Galicia. He wore suspended round his neck the most holy of the relies upon which Harold had sworn; and a young Norman called Tonstain-le-Blane carried at his side the standard which had been blessed by the Pope. At the moment when the soldiers were about to march, with a loud voice he thus addressed them:"Take care that you fight well, and to the death: if the day is ours, it will make our fortunes for us all. Whatever I gain, you shall gain; if this land is to be mine, it shall be yours also. You know well that I am come here not only to claim my right, but to avenge our nation of the felony, perjury, and treasons of these English. Have they not murdered the Danes upon the night of Saint Brice, slaying alike both women and men? Have they not decimated the companions of Alfred, my ancestor, and caused them to perish? Advance then, and with the aid of God let us revenge upon them all their misdeeds."

The army moved forward, and soon found itself in view of the Saxon camp, which lay to the north-west of Hastings, and the priests and monks who had hitherto marched in the ranks, now left them in a body and took their station upon a neighboring height, where they could offer up their prayers, and behold the battle undisturbed. At this moment a Norman knight, named Taillefer, spurred his horse in front of the battle, and with a loud voice began the song of Charlemagne and Roland, chanting those valorous deeds which were then famous throughout France. As he sung, he played with his sword, casting it high in the air and catching it again with his right hand, while the Normans joined in the chorus, or shouted their cry of God aid us! God aid us! Arrived within bow shot, the archers began to discharge their arrows, and the cross-bowmen their quarrels, but the shots were for the most part blunted or thrown off by the high parapet which surrounded the Saxon entrenchments. The foot lancers and the cavalry then advanced to the gates of the fortification and attempted to force them; but the Anglo-Saxons drawn up on foot around their standard, which was fixed in the earth, and forming a compact and solid mass behind their entrenchments, received their assailants with tremendous cuts of their steel axes, which were so heavy and sharp, that they broke the lances and cut sheer through the coats of mail. This so dispirited the Normans, that unable either to force the entrenchments, or remove the palisades, they retreated upon the column which William commanded, worn out with their fruitless attack. The Duke, however, commanded the archers to advance anew, giving orders to them no longer to shoot point blank, but with an elevation, so that the arrows might decend within the entrenchments of the enemy. Many of the English were wounded by this manoeuvre, chiefly in the face, and Harold himself had his eye struck by an arrow, notwithstanding which he still continued to fight at the head of his army. The Norman infantry and cavalry again advanced to the attack, encouraging each other by shouts of God aid us! and invocations to the virgin; but they were repulsed by a sudden sally from one of the gates of the entrenched camp, and driven back upon a ravine covered with brushwood and thick grass, where, from the roughness of the ground, their horses stumbled, and falling confusedly and thickly upon each other were slain in great numbers. At this moment a panic terror seemed to seize the foreign army: a report arose that the Duke had fallen, and a flight began which must soon have been fatal, had not William thrown himself before the fugitives, threatening and even striking them with his lance till he compelled them to turn back. "Behold me, my friends," cried he, taking off his helmet, “it is myself. I still live, and by the help of God I shall be victorious." Upon this, the men at arms renewed their attack upon the entrenchments, but still found it impossible to make a breach in the palisades, or to force the gates, when the Duke bethought himself of a stratagem, by which he might induce the English to break their ranks and leave their position. He gave orders to a squadron of a thousand horse to advance and afterwards to retire suddenly as if they fled. At the sight of this pretended flight the Saxons lost their presence of mind, and with one consent rushed from their entrenchments, with their battle-axes slung round their neck; suddenly a concealed body joined the fugitives who wheeled about, and the English, thrown into disorder, and taken by surprise in their turn, found themselves assaulted

on all sides with the sword and the lance, whose strokes they could not ward off, both hands being employed in managing their ponderous battle-axes. Their ranks being once broken, the entrenchments were carried, and foot and horse indiscriminately rushed in, but the close battle was still maintained with great obstinacy and hand to hand. Duke William had his horse killed under him, and Harold, with his two brothers, fell dead at the foot of their standard, which was instantly torn down and replaced by the sacred banner that had been sent from Rome. The remains of the English army prolonged the struggle, till the shades of night falling upon the field rendered it impossible for the combatants to distinguish each other except by the difference of language.

The few surviving companions of Harold, to use the words of an old historian, after having well fulfilled their duty to their country, dispersed in all directions, yet many covered with wounds or worn out with their exertions, lay stretched along the neighboring roads, while the Normans in the fierce and cruel exultation of their victory, spurred and galloped their horses over the bodies of the vanquished. They remained all night upon the field of battle, and next day the Duke, at the rising of the sun, drew up his army, and from the roll which had been written before their departure from St. Valery, called the names of all who had landed in England. Multitudes of these now lay dead or dying, stretched beside the Saxons, and those who had the good fortune to survive, enjoyed as the first fruits of their victory, the plunder of the slain. In examining the dead bodies, thirteen were found with the monkish habit under their armor. These were the Abbot of Hida and his twelve companions; and the name of their monastry was the first which was inscribed in the black roll of the conquerors."

[graphic][merged small]

The annexed is the representation of the Abbey in the town of Battle, about eight miles from Hastings, and was founded by William the Conqueror to commemorate his victory, and the high altar in the church is said to have stood on the very spot where the body of Harold was found. At the time of the reformation the Abbey was dismantled. The Abbey has undergone many repairs, but enough of the original buildings remain to evince their magnificence.

[graphic][merged small][merged small]

WOOLWICH.

[graphic]

WOOLWICH, in the county of Kent, is eight miles eastward of London Bridge, and is one of the most interesting and important situations for the maratime and military operations of Great Britain, possessing a most commodious dock-yard, arsenal, military barracks, magazines, a Royal Military Academy, &c. The population of the place is about 25,000, exclusive of the military, the number of whom stationed here is upwards of 3,000. In early times, Woolwich was a small fishing town. A dock-yard was founded here in 1512, and was called the "Mother Dock of England." In this dock-yard, now nearly a mile in length, and encompassed with a high wall, there was built, in the reign of Henry VIII, the great ship called The Harry Grace à Dieu. Here also was constructed in the reign of Charles I, The Sovereign of the Seas, the largest vessel that had hitherto been built in England, her burthen being 1,637 tons. By the Dutch she was called the "Golden Devil," from the destruction which her cannon made among their seamen. She carried 176 pieces of ordnance; she had five lanthorns, one of which would contain seven persons standing upright; and eleven anchors, the largest weighing 4,400 pounds.

One of the most attractive objects to the stranger is the Military Repository, situated on the common. The chief building on the grounds is the Rotunda, a circular structure raised on an elevated site in a tent-like form. This building is twenty-four sided, and 120 feet in diameter, and was at first erected by George IV, for the purpose of receiving and banqueting the Allied Sovereigns of Europe on their visit to England after the peace of 1814. After serving the original purpose, this banqueting hall was given to the military authorities of Woolwich, by whom it was placed in its present position, and converted into a museum for models of

a naval and military character and other curiosities connected with the two services.

In the Royal Arsenal there is a foundery for casting brass cannon, &c., and the Laboratory fire-works, cartridges, &c., for the army and navy are made. The original cannon foundery was at the back of Upper Moorfields, in London, at a place afterwards converted by the Rev. John Wesley into a chapel. The cause of the removal was in consequence of the following accident. The Duke of Richmond having ordered a large re-cast of the guns taken by Marlborough from the French, a great concourse attended to witness the operation. Mr. Schalch, a Swiss, who happened to be present, felt convinced, by observing moisture in the moulds, that an explosion might be expected, and warned the Duke and the surrounding spectators of their danger. The warning being unheeded, the explosion took place, by which several persons were severely wounded. M. Schalch, having given proof of his knowledge, was appointed to find a suitable place for a foundery. In accordance with his commission he selected Woolwich.

The Royal Military Academy here, built in a castellated form, was completed in 1806, at a cost of £150,000. The officers of the royal artillery and royal engineers are exclusively supplied from this school. There is no town in the kingdom so decidedly a military one as Woolwich, and almost every trade in it has some reference to military matters. The interior of most of the buildings for the manufacture of the munitions of war, is sealed to the visitor, but the open spaces are not destitute of objects to arrest the attention-two appalling items to contemplate; one is the ordnance, ranged in lines on the ground to the number of twenty-eight thousand pieces of large cannon, the other of shot and shells pyramidically built up to the number of four millions!

GRAVESEND, CHATHAM AND ROCHESTER.

Gravesend, twenty-one miles E. from London, was formerly of much note, from the circumstance of every outward bound vessel being obliged when it arrived before the town to come to an anchor, to be examined and obtain its clearance, and to take in its live and dead stock, and vegetables. Here it was that Pocahontas, so celebrated in the early history of Virginia, died as she was about to embark for America. When the new Custom house arrangements were made, the prosperity of Gravesend seemed to be in jeopardy. The introduction of steamboats on the Thames, and their superiority over the old sailing boats, was a new era in its history. The place is now within two hours distance of London by water, and one by railroad, which makes it quite a place of resort for vast numbers from the Metropolis, particularly on Sundays. The population has increased of late, being about 15,000.

ENGLAND.

Across the river from Gravesend, here about half a mile wide, is Tilbury Fort, a place of note from the time of Henry VIII. The fort originated in an old beacon tower of Richard II, which Henry enlarged. At this fort, the great military camp was stationed to check the progress of the Spanish Amada, and here Queen Elizabeth delivered to the troops that famous harangue against the Spanish invaders. Its armament at present consists of sixty dismounted guns, and a garrison of sixty invalid veterans; the effective force being a corporal's guard and a master gunner.

Chatham, thirty-one miles E. from London, lies on the south bank of the river Medway, about eight miles above its confluence with the mouth of the Thames. Population upwards of 21,000. It is one of the important stations of the Royal Navy; the yards and magazines being furnished with all kinds of stores and materials for building, rigging and repairing the largest vessels. The place is strongly guarded by extensive fortifications called lines; these are strengthened by ramparts, ditches, &c., and a strong redoubt on the summit of a hill. The dock-yard is nearly a mile long. There are seven slips for building vessels, aud four wet docks capable of receiving vessels of the largest size. In the ropehouse, which extends to over 1,100 feet, cables are constructed of above 100 fathoms in length, of an immense size.

The military establishments of Chatham include barracks for the marines, infantry of the line, and artillery; also hospitals, and a school for the instruction of young officers, privates, and recruits, in the practical knowledge of the duties of the engineering service. Privates, belonging to the Engineers and to the Sappers and Miners, are here instructed in all that relates to fortification, garrison operations, and field service.

Rochester, with Strood and Chatham, which together extend about two miles along the banks of the Midway, form to the eye but one long continued narrow city, and together comprise a population of upwards of 40,000. Strood is chiefly noticeable as being the railway station for the three towns-Rochester for its castle and cathedral-and Chatham for its dock-yards, barracks, and fortifications. Rochester probably is the oldest of the three towns. It was walled round as early as the time of Ethelbert I; the walls are supposed to have been built by the Romans, some traces of which remain. The older portions of the present ruins of the castle are of the early style of Norman architecture. In the reign of John, Rochester Castle was taken possession of by the insurgent barons, but they were however obliged to surrender to the king's forces. The last repair of the building is stated to have been in the year 1461, in the reign of Edward IV; since that period it appears to have been almost entirely neglected. The Cathedral is, as it looks, one of the oldest buildings in England.

5

[ocr errors]
« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »