WILLIAM AJtfD HAEY.

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prevail against ravelins and bastions which science had con-structed. His detractors sneeringly pronounced it fortunate-that the department of the military art which His Majesty con-sidered as the noblest was one in which it was seldom necessaryfor him to expose to serious risk a life invaluable to hispeople.

Namur, situated at the confluence of the Sambre and theMeuse, was one of the great fortresses of Europe. The townlay in the plain, and had no strength except what was derivedfrom art. But art and nature had combined to fortify that re-nowned citadel which, from the summit of a lofty rock, looksdown on a boundless expanse of cornfields, woods and meadows,watered by two fine rivers. The people of the city and of thesurrounding region were proud of their impregnable castle.Their boast was that never, in all the wars which had de-vastated the Netherlands, had skill or valour been able topenetrate those walls. The neighbouring fastnesses, famedthroughout the world for their strength, Antwerp and Ostend,Ypres, Lisle and Tournay, Mons and Valenciennes, Cambrayand Charleroi, Limburg and Luxemburg, had opened theirgates to conquerors: but never once had the flag been pulleddown from the battlements of Namur. That nothing might bewanting to the interest of the siege, the two great masters ofthe art of fortification were opposed to each other. Vaubanhad during many years been regarded as the first of engineers:but a formidable rival had lately arisen, Menno, Baron of Co-horn, the ablest officer in the service of the States General.The defences of Namur had been recently strengthened and re-paired under Cohorn’s superintendence; and he was now withinthe walls. Vauban was in the camp of Lewis. It might there-fore be expected that both the attack and the defence would beconducted with consummate ability.

By this time the allied armies had assembled: but it was too

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11)92.