a system of masonry for protecting his cannon; when an explosion took place with the most and he armed his fortresses with such a number appalling results. of guns that their heavy concentrated fire would effectually keep a besieger at a distance. Some of his ideas have been utilised in the fortification of Coblenz.

The German system has been much used on the continent. Forts Alexander, Kaiser Franz near Coblenz, Rastadt, Antwerp, Wesel, and Erfurt, are fair examples; and its principles have been adopted in many of the new works in the United Kingdom. Its conspicuous features are the inclosing of a given space by the shortest possible line of works; the placing of isolated defensible works in prominent situations, defending the ditch by powerful detached towers called caponnières; placing casemated barracks, heavily armed, in the vital points of the position; and making free use of mining some portions of the ground round the fortress, so that if an enemy attempted to establish himself too near, he could readily be blown up. The system has the advantage that a small force can defend it, and the works being concentrated, are well under the supervision of the commander.

Since the fifteenth century, mining has played an important part in military operations. Such a system of attack is defended by counter-mines -that is, mines prepared beforehand; and in this country, but more especially in continental fortresses, counter-mines have been extensively adopted; the application of electricity to warlike purposes suggesting a ready means of exploding them at any given moment. The besieger is perhaps driving his mine towards the fortress; the besieged hears the sound of the underground working, and loads his counter-mine, already formed, with dynamite, gun-cotton, gunpowder, or whatever explosive he may have on hand, hurries away, and fires the counter-mine, which not only destroys whatever may be on the surface of the ground, but whatever underground mines lie within a given distance, called the radii of rupture. Both soldiers and sailors greatly dread mines, whether in fortifications on land, or torpedoes or fire-ships on the

ocean.

One hundred pounds of gunpowder judiciously applied in blowing up houses or bridges, will usually stop the progress of a conflagration, or destroy any bridge so that the passage of troops or guns would be effectually prevented. The siege of Antwerp in 1584 is perhaps the most renowned instance of what a comparatively small quantity of gunpowder will effect. The Duke of Parma had thrown a bridge across the Scheldt, and the besieged were most anxious to destroy it. A hollow stone chamber was therefore built on a long vessel, and filled with gunpowder. The roof was loaded with huge slates and blocks of stone, the deck strewn with destructive missiles, the fuse lighted, and the vessel allowed to drift towards the bridge,

The Times 'Beemaster' has given amusing instances of the application of bees to defensive purposes. A small privateer manned by fifty men, but having on board some hives of bees, was pursued by a Turkish galley, manned by five hundred seamen and soldiers. When the latter came alongside, the crew of the privateer mounted the rigging with their hives, and threw them upon their foes, who, astonished at this novel mode of warfare, hastened to escape from the fury of the enraged bees. Another instance occurred, when a rabble at Hohnstein, in Thungaria, attempted to pillage the house of the parish minister; he caused some beehives to be thrown among the mob, who in consequence soon dispersed. Again, Vauban narrates how bees played an important part at the siege of Chatté, in Lorraine. After a siege, the town was being stormed, and during, the assault, the besieged threw a few hives of bees upon the heads of the storming-party. The little creatures stung the besiegers so dreadfully that they had to retire; and the historian tells that the bees were not the least cause of the siege being abandoned.'

The fortifications of the United Kingdom are armed with breech-loading rifle-cannon weighing from thirty-eight tons downwards; and with smooth-bore cannon from five tons downwards, and capable of projecting heavy shot and shell to distances up to five miles. The infantry who would man the ramparts in the event of war, are armed with the Henry-Martini breech-loading rifle, in which a sword or bayonet can be fitted. And at close range, case-shot-tin canisters full of bullets-can be fired from smooth-bore cannon with deadly effect against troops or boats.

Within the last few years, two inventions in the system of mounting guns have attracted much notice; we mean those of Captain Heathorn and Colonel Moncrieff. Captain Heathorn's gun is elevated or depressed on an imaginary pivot at its muzzle, so that it can fire from a casemate embrasure-a hole in the wall-or from a ship's port just large enough to allow the muzzle to enter. Colonel Moncrieff, by aid of a counterpoise, raises his gun high enough to fire, and then the shock of the recoil causes it to sink down like a ‘Jackin-the-box' into the original position under cover of the ramparts.

Dover being the nearest port to France, and connected by railway with the capital and principal towns, is an important military position. An enemy's force, if unopposed, could readily land there in a day, and march into London Some of its fortifications date from the time of the Romans, and some were added during the Saxon and Norman epochs. The works were materially strengthened during the French revolutionary war, and were divided into two setsthe Western Heights Defences, which contain Archcliff Fort and the Drop Redoubt; and the

which the presence of a hostile army on British would suffer too, though he would learn to live soil must produce, will be such that it would it down. Wonderful how easy it seemed, how be absolute madness on the part of the govern- likely it seemed-this learning to live it down— ment and people of this country were they to in the other man's case; how bitterly hopeless omit any possible measure of precaution, or to shrink from any present sacrifice, by which the and dreary a prospect it presented in his own. occurrence of such a catastrophe may be rendered This faculty of seeing your own side big, and impossible. The limited extent of the country other people's little, it is which makes wars, would seriously restrict our means of protracted breeds hatreds, fills jails, and feeds the scaffold. defence. The immense amount of our accumu- The immortal precept which bids man love his lated capital would afford to the enemy the neighbour as himself, aims a blow at crime, which, ready means of levying his heavy exactions. The if it took effect, were fatal; for it strikes egotism complicated and very delicate network of credit dead; and the thief would no longer steal, if he, which overlies all the multitudinous transactions ignorant, vicious, and ugly, could be brought to of the country, would vibrate throughout upon know that the philanthropist his victim, lovely the first touch of our soil by a foreign invader, in men's sight, learned and pious, has claims upon and would, in all probability, be subject to a sudden and fearful collapse; while the confusion the world which are equal to his own. and distress produced among the labouring classes dreams not of it, and does not indeed properly would be truly fearful. Millions of our labour- realise any other human creature's existence. ing population depend for their daily maintenance Other men are not alive to us, and therefore upon trading and manufacturing enterprise, the we injure or neglect them. They go about, vital principle of which is the undisturbed state assuredly, and conduct business, and marry wives, of public order, confidence, and credit.' and rear children, and what not; but it is only you who are really alive in the middle of these simulacra, only you who love thus passionately, who suffer thus profoundly, who dream thus loftily. It was not only the half-cured blind man in Palestine who saw men but as trees walking.

VALENTINE STRANGE.

A STORY OF THE PRIMROSE WAY. CHAPTER XXIII.-RUNNING AWAY FROM DISHONOUR.

VAL STRANGE sat alone in a smoking-carriage in a train bound for Southampton, and whither he might go from that starting-point, he neither knew nor cared. One place was likely to be as blank and empty as another for many a year to come, he thought, and the world held nothing worth doing or seeing or thinking about. He was sore against himself, for it seemed only his own blunder which had driven him away. He was angry with Gilbert for having betrayed his confidence, and angry with himself for having put it in his power to do so. He confessed that if he had warned Gilbert, the secret would have been safe in his hands; and he was very angry about his own stupidity. Once or twice his heart told him, 'It is better as it is;' but on the whole it was not wonderful that this reflection had little power to soothe him. Reginald's declaration about their being 'both men of honour,' hit him hard. He had been honourable once, and he would have scorned in another the action which he himself had taken. He had planned to undermine his friend in the affections of his plighted wife. That was the plain English of the business, and black enough it looked when set forth simply so. But then came his excuses. Egotism, parent of dishonour and crime, put forth her plea. He loved, he suffered, he would be miserable for life. Not even yet had Egotism power to blind him altogether, and he saw that there were two sides to this, as to most other matters. Gerard loved, not so deeply as himself perhaps; for who could credit that?-but still he loved her, beyond doubt, because no man could help it. And Gerard, if robbed of her,

But he

Even in our bitterest hours we do things which are habitual to us. Val's cigar-case was his one source of comfort at all vacuous times, and he went to it now. Mechanically he drew it from its place, mechanically chose a cigar, mechanically felt in his pockets for a vesta. First here, and then there, his fingers strayed, until his mind silver box was lost, or left behind, and it became woke up and took part in the task. The little suddenly a matter of the gravest importance that poor Val should smoke. And here was a twenty miles' run before him without a pause, and no chance of a whiff for an eternity of at least fiveand-twenty minutes. Cruel Fate! His anger at this circumstance became at length comic to himself, and he took to chaffing himself drearily of the window for the station within that score about it; but he looked half-a-score times out of miles, and consulted his watch again and again. Time had never seemed to hang more heavily. The train reached the station at last, and Val's carriage stopped opposite a refreshment-room. He leaped from his place to the platform. time here, sir,' an official on the platform warned him. All right,' cried Val; and dashing into the refreshment-room, called for a box of vestas, and being most leisurely supplied by the superior to find the train in motion. in charge of the place, rushed back again person 'Here you are, sir!' cried the guard; and he made a dash for the carriage-door held open. The guard slammed it noisily behind him, and he had re-caught the train by a fraction of a second. But this was not his carriage, and indeed not a smoking-compartment at all; and to make matters worse, it was occupied by a lady in mourning, who sat veiled in one corner. Val within himself spoke evil of the guard, and greatly fumed and fretted. The night was cold, his rugs were in the other carriage, and their sudden loss rendered him doubly susceptible to the chilly air.

No

'Had you not better send a message and go back?'

'I can't send a message,' she faltered; 'I don't know the address.'

"Can you find the address?' he demanded. 'No,' she answered; 'but I can find him. He conducts an omnibus, and it goes up and down Cheapside.'

'Oh!' said Val, with a curious glance at her. He conducts an omnibus, does he? And it goes up and down Cheapside? Very well, then. And you are quite sure of being safe, if you find him?'

"O yes,' she cried, with so much certainty, that Val read the whole thing at once.

big bed with a combined sense of adventure and luxury, and was fast asleep in a few minutes, and slept indeed until the chambermaid's knock aroused her. She looked neat and pretty in her plain black dress, and spotless cuffs and collars of white linen; but she shrank inwardly to think that only ladies had a right to be in so magnificent a place as this, and reflected with sadness that ladies always went habited in silken gorgiosities, with gold chains and real lace and other marvels about them. She ventured out into the vast hotel corridor, and its waste silence frightened her so much that she retreated, and felt so utterly lonely and deserted, that the tears of last night were almost on flow again, when with a little dictatorial knock the chambermaid entered and 'Very well,' he responded. 'You had better said that breakfast was ready. So Mary meekly go back to London. Do you know what to do followed the chambermaid, who led her once more with your luggage when you get to the station?'into Val's presence. Let it be recorded to his She knew nothing. I never met such an credit that he had on this occasion surrendered one unsophisticated little creature in my life before, of his own specially-beloved habits. He disliked he said to himself. He explained to her how crowds and tables-d'hôte, and being rich enough to to leave her luggage at the cloak-room, and to secure privacy wherever he went, had strengthened take a ticket for it; and next he sought out the native tendency by habit, until a public eating-station-master, and told him where to send any place was hateful to him. Breakfast, in especial, was a meal he liked to lounge over in privacy, in dressing-gown and slippers. But thinking wisely that the girl would rather be spared a tête-à-tête, and that her present position-alone, and with a male protector who was a stranger-demanded all possible delicacy of treatment, he ordered breakfast for two in the coffee-room; and thither she was shown. The breakfast service hit the untravelled maiden hard-the cut-glass and the bright electro-plate, and the dish-covers. There were well-dressed people of both sexes in the room, and the room itself was large, lofty, and richly papered and corniced. She sat down in a tremor at all this, and Val had some little trouble in putting her completely at ease. Not that there was any open sign of gaucherie or ill-breeding about her she would have passed for a lady with wonderfully little practice. After breakfast, Val took her to meet the early train; but no Garling came by it, for the best of reasons -or the worst. She told him with childlike naïveté all her little story, if you except the fact of Hiram; and Val learned that she had lived all her life with the mother whom she had so lately lost, poor thing, and had worked this last three years as a milliner in the City. She was not at all clear about Garling, but supposed he had been away abroad-vaguely, and had only lately

returned.

And you don't know where he was coming to -in Southampton?' her companion asked. 'No,' she answered falteringly.

'And he doesn't know where to send to you?' 'No,' she said again. Val pondered as they went back from the station together. Was this mere child purposely thrown loose upon the world? Wickeder things than even that were done every day, and it was quite possible.

'Where does your father live?' he asked her. But as this question evidently embarrassed the girl, Val proceeded on another tack.

'Do you know anybody else in London who would take care of you?' he inquired.

"O yes,' she said, brightening a little to think of Hiram. If she could only reach Hiram, she

was safe.

inquirer who might come from London on the outlook for a daughter. To be brief, he saw her away by the next train, Garling still being absent from the scene; and having paid for her ticket, he bestowed her in a carriage, committed her to the care of the guard, and slipped a five-pound note into her hand as the train moved off. His manly kindness to this poor waif of fortune thawed his own numbed heart awhile, and then he went away and forgot her. She never forgot him-it was scarcely possible that she should forget so notable a figure in her small life-history. She was faithful to Hiram; but a wonderful sort of worshipping admiration surrounded the kindly and generous stranger in her thoughts. Faithful to Hiram? Val no more disturbed her faith than if he had been a creature from another sphere, a conventional angel, or some other such wonderful wild-fowl. But she remembered him, alike with gratitude and affec tion, and eagerly repaid him when the time. came. And it was not her fault if the service she rendered him went towards his own undoing; but his, who chose the service for her.

The weather was growing mild, and in the country places, Spring was stealing up apace, working all her yearly miracles by the way The air grew balmy, and the sky clear. What does it matter to me where I go?' said Val desperately. The open sea would somehow be in tune with his mood, he fancied; and so he shipped for the West Indies, after lounging for an uneasy day or two at Southampton; but speeding towards the Islands of Spice over a seal and under a heaven which grew daily more lovely, he found no peace of heart. He wrote before starting one brief letter to Reginald, in which every line breathed recklessness and despair. He had locked Constance's portrait in the largest of his trunks, and had it buried the ship's hold, without much avail, since it haunted him through the long empty hours of a smooth and uneventful passage. Perhaps this voyage was as mistaken a remedy as he could anyhow have indulged in. He had nothing to do except to smoke and moon about the decks and