prit near Lyons were originally of Roman construction. During the
war of freedom, so admirably described by our countryman, whereby rose
the Dutch Republic, the Huguenots, at the siege of Valenciennes, we are
told, "made forays upon the monasteries for the purpose of procuring
supplies, and the broken statues of the dismantled churches were used to
build a bridge across an arm of the river, which was called, in
derision, the Bridge of Idols."

But a more memorable historical bridge is admirably described in another
military episode of this favorite historian,--that which Alexander of
Parma built across the Scheldt, whereby Antwerp was finally won for
Philip of Spain. Its construction was a miracle of science and courage;
and it became the scene of one of the most terrible tragedies and the
most fantastic festivals which signalize the history of that age, and
illustrate the extraordinary and momentous struggle for religious
liberty in the Netherlands. Its piers extended five hundred feet into
the stream,--connected with the shore by boats, defended by palisades,
fortified parapets, and spiked rafts; cleft and partially destroyed by
the volcanic fireship of Gianebelli, a Mantuan chemist and engineer,
whereby a thousand of the best troops of the Spanish army were instantly
killed, and their brave chief stunned,--when the hour of victory came to
the besiegers, it was the scene of a floral procession and Arcadian
banquet, and "the whole extent of its surface from the Flemish to the
Brabant shore" was alive with "war-bronzed figures crowned with
flowers." "This magnificent undertaking has been favorably compared with
the celebrated Rhine bridge of Julius Caesar. When it is remembered,
however, that the Roman work was performed in summer, across a river
only half as broad as the Scheldt, free from the disturbing action of
the tides, and flowing through an unresisting country, while the whole
character of the structure, intended only to serve for the single
passage of an army, was far inferior to the massive solidity of Parma's
bridge, it seems not unreasonable to assign the superiority to the
general who had surmounted all the obstacles of a northern winter,
vehement ebb and flow from the sea, and enterprising and desperate
enemies at every point."[G]

Even the fragile bridges of our own country, during the Revolution, have
an historical importance in the story of war: the "Great Bridge" across
the Elizabeth River, nine miles