and maintained himself,--Gribeauval and he did,--with an
admirable obstinacy: the details of which would be very wearisome
to readers. Gribeauval and he, I said; for from this time, Engineer
Lefebvre, though he tried (with bad skill, thinks Tempelhof) some bits
of assault above ground, took mainly to mining, and a grand underground
invention called GLOBES DE COMPRESSION; which he reckoned to be the
real sovereign method,--unlucky that he was! I may at least explain what
GLOBE DE COMPRESSION is; for it becomes famous on this occasion, and
no name could be less descriptive of the thing. Not a GLOBE at all, for
that matter, nor intended to "compress," but to EXpress, and shatter
to pieces in a transcendent degree: it is, in fact, a huge cubical
mine-chamber, filled by a wooden box (till Friedrich, in his hurry,
taught Lefebvre that a sack would do as well), loaded with, say, five
thousand-weight of powder. Sufficient to blow any horn-work, bastion,
bulwark, into the air,--provided you plant it in the right place; which
poor Lefebre never can. He tried, with immense labor, successively some
four or almost five of these "PRESS BALLS" so called (or Volcanoes in
Little); mining on, many yards, 15 or 20 feet underground (tormented
by Gribeauval all the way); then at last, exploding his five
thousand-weight,--would produce a "Funnel," or crater, of perhaps "30
yards in diameter," but, alas, "150 yards OFF any bastion." Funnel of
no use to him;--mere sign to him that he must go down into it, and
begin there again; with better aim, if possible. And then Gribeauval's
tormentings; never were the like! Gribeauval has, all round under the
Glacis, mine-galleries, or main-roads for Counter-mining, ready to his
hand (mine-galleries built by Friedrich while lately proprietor); there
Gribeauval is hearkening the beat of Lefebvre's picks: "Ten yards from
us, think you? Six yards? Get a 30 hundredweight of chamber ready for
him!" And will, at the right moment, blow Lefebvre's gallery about his
ears;--sometimes bursts in upon him bodily with pistol and cutlass, or
still worse, with explosive sulphur-balls, choke-pots and infinitudes of
mal-odor instantaneously developed on Lefebvre,--which mean withal, "You
will have to begin again, Monsieur!" Enough to drive a Lefebvre out
of his wits. Twice, or oftener, Lefebvre, a zealous creature but a
thin-skinned, flew out into open paroxysm; wept, invoked the gods,
threatened suicide: so that Friedrich h