PASSAGES FOR TRANSLATION INTO LATIN.

PART I.

HISTORICAL.

DUMBARTON CASTLE TAKEN BY SURPRISE. A.D. 1571.

HE situation of the castle on the top of a high and almost

THE inaccessible rock, which rises in the middle of a plain,

rendered it extremely strong, and, in the opinion of that age, impregnable; as it commanded the river Clyde, it was of great consequence, and was deemed the most proper place in the kingdom for landing any foreign troops that might come to Mary's aid. The strength of the place rendered Lord Fleming, the governor, more secure than he ought to have been, considering its importance. A soldier who had served in the garrison, and had been disgusted by some ill-usage, proposed the scheme to the Regent, endeavoured to show that it was practicable, and offered himself to go the foremost man on the enterprise. It was thought prudent to risk any danger for so great a prize. Scaling ladders, and whatever else might be necessary, were prepared with the utmost secrecy and despatch. All the avenues to the castle were seized, that no intelligence of the design might reach the governor. Towards evening Crawford marched from Glasgow with a small but determined band. By midnight they arrived at the bottom of the rock. The moon was

B

set, and the sky, which hitherto had been extremely clear, was covered with a thick fog. It was where the rock was highest that the assailants made their attempt, because in that place there were few sentinels, and they hoped to find them least alert.

The first ladder was scarcely fixed, when the weight and eagerness of those who mounted brought it to the ground. None of the assailants were hurt by the fall, and none of the garrison alarmed by the noise. Their guide and Crawford scrambled up the rock, and fastened the ladder to the roots of a tree which grew in a cleft. This place they all reached with the utmost difficulty, but were still at a great distance from the foot of the wall. Their ladder was made fast a second time; but in the middle of the ascent, they were met by an unforeseen difficulty. One of their companions was seized with some sudden fit, and clung, seemingly without life, to the ladder. All were at a stand. It was impossible to pass him. To tumble him headlong was cruel; and might occasion a discovery. But Crawford's presence of mind did not forsake him. He ordered the soldier to be bound fast to the ladder, that he might not fall when the fit was over; then turning the other side of the ladder, they mounted with ease over his belly. Day now began to break, and there still remained a high wall to scale; but after surmounting so many great difficulties, this was soon accomplished. A sentry observed the first man who appeared on the parapet, and had just time to give the alarm, before he was knocked on the head. The officers and soldiers of the garrison ran out naked, unarmed, and more solicitous about their own safety, than capable of making resistance. The assailants rushed forwards, with repeated shouts and with the utmost fury; took possession of the magazine; seized the cannon, and turned them against their enemies. Lord Fleming got into a small boat, and fled all alone into Argyleshire. Crawford, in reward of his valour and good conduct, remained master of the castle.-Robertson.

SALLUST, Bell. Jugurth. c. 92, 93, 94.

LIVY, xxiv. c. 3, 46.

xxv. c. 23, 24. ix. c. 24, 37.

SIEGE OF PLATÆA-WORKS AND COUNTERWORKS.

HE mode of attack which Archidamus chiefly relied upon was the same which had been employed by the Persians against the Ionian cities. He attempted to raise a mound to a level with the walls. It was piled up with earth and rubbish, wood and stones, and was guarded on either side by a strong lattice-work of forest timber, the growth of Citharon. As the mound rose, the besieged devised various expedients for averting the danger. First they surmounted the opposite part of their wall with a superstructure of brick-taken from the adjacent houses, which were pulled down for the purpose-secured in a frame of timber, and shielded from fiery missiles by a curtain of raw hides and skins, which protected the workmen and their work. But as the mound still kept rising as fast as the wall, they set about contriving plans for reducing it. And first, issuing by night through an opening made in the wall, they scooped out and carried away large quantities of the earth from the lower part of the mound. But the Peloponnesians, on discovering this device, counteracted it, by repairing the breach with layers of stiff clay, pressed down close on wattles of reed. Thus baffled, the besieged sunk a shaft within the walls, and thence working upon a rough estimate dug a passage underground as far as the mound, which they were thus enabled to undermine. And against this contrivance the enemy had no remedy, except in the multitude of hands, which repaired the loss almost as soon as it was felt.-Thirlwall.

LIVY, xxxviii. c. 7. CESAR, Bell. Civil. ii. c. 8, sqq.

BUT

SIEGE ANd defenCE OF PLATÆA.

UT the garrison, fearing that they should not be able to struggle long with this disadvantage, and that their wall would at length be carried by force of numbers, provided against this event by building a second wall, in the shape of a

half-moon, behind the raised part of the old wall, which was the chord of the arc. Thus in the worst emergency they secured themselves a retreat, from which they would be able to assail the enemy to great advantage, and he would have to recommence his work under the most unfavourable circumstances. This countermine drove the besiegers to their last resources. They had already brought battering engines to play upon the walls. But the spirit and ingenuity of the besieged had generally baffled these assaults, though one had given an alarming shock to the superstructure in front of the half-moon. Sometimes the head of an engine was caught up by means of a noose; sometimes it was broken off by a heavy beam, suspended by chains from two levers placed on the wall. Now, however, after the main hope of the Peloponnesians, which rested on their mound, was completely defeated by the countermine, Archidamus resolved to try a last extraordinary experiment. He caused the hollow between the mound and the wall, and all the space which he could reach on the other side, to be filled up with a pile of faggots, which, when it had been steeped in pitch and sulphur, was set on fire. The blaze was such as had perhaps never before been kindled by the art of men; Thucydides compares it to a burning forest.-Thirlwall.

LIVY, xxxviii. c. 7. CESAR, Bell. Civil. ii. c. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.

THE

THE ESCAPE FROM PLATEA.

HE contrivers of the plan took the lead in the enterprise. Scaling ladders of a proper height were the first requisite ; and they were made upon a measurement of the enemy's wall, for which the besieged had no other basis than the number of layers of brick, which were sedulously counted over and over again by different persons, until the amount, and consequently the height of the wall, was sufficiently ascertained.

A dark and stormy night in the depth of winter was chosen