ll fortified, the empire of Constantine
must have terminated in the year 700, whereas the standard of the
Prophet was not planted there until 1440. This capital was therefore
indebted to its walls for eight hundred years of existence. During this
period it was besieged fifty-three times, but only one of these sieges
was successful. The French and Venetians took it, but not without a very
severe contest.

Paris has often owed its safety to its walls. In 885 the Normans
besieged it for two years without effect. In 1358 the Dauphin besieged
it in vain. In 1359 Edward, king of England, encamped at Montrouge,
devastated the country to its walls, but recoiled from before it, and
retired to Chartres. In 1429 it repulsed the attack of Charles VII. In
1464 the Count of Charlerois surrounded the city, but was unsuccessful
in his attacks. In 1472 it repulsed the army of the Duke of Bourgone,
who had already ravaged its precincts. In 1536, when attacked by Charles
V., it again owed its safety to its walls. In 1588 and 1589 it repulsed
the armies of Henry III. and Henry IV. In 1636 and several succeeding
years the inhabitants of Paris owed their safety to its walls. If this
capital had been strongly fortified in 1814 and 1815, the allied armies
would not have dared to attempt its investment.

But it is deemed unnecessary to further specify examples; the whole
history of modern warfare is one continued proof of the importance of
fortifications as a means of national defence, and as an auxiliary in
offensive military operations. Our illustrations have been mostly drawn
from European wars, but our own brief history, as will be shown
hereafter, is not without its proofs.

The use and importance of field-fortifications, intrenched camps, &c.,
as well as the class of military works called coast-defences, will be
discussed hereafter.[6]

[Footnote 6: The use of fortifications in the defence of states is
discussed by Ternay, Vauban, Cormontaigne, Napoleon, the Archduke
Charles, Jomini, Fallot, and, incidentally, by most of the military
historians of the wars of the French Revolution. The names of such
standard works as give the detailed arrangements of fortifications will
be mentioned hereafter.]

CHAPTER IV.

LOGISTICS.

III. We have defined _logistics_ to be that branch of the military art
which embraces all the practical details of moving and supplying armies.
The term is derived from the title of a French general office