Outside the walls, a ravelin guarded the main doorway.
This attack, in which the Turkish arms were rewarded by the capture of the ravelin behind the cavalier, is said to have cost them the lives of three thousand men.
A ravelin in advance of the fortress on the land side was scourged without ceasing by the arquebus fire of the Janissaries.
On the side of the Christians twenty Knights and one hundred soldiers were slain; but worst of all, from their point of view, the ravelin remained in the hands of their enemies.
At the same time the enemy had made an attack upon the ravelin of the Porte S.
But next morning the Huguenots, after a prolonged cannonade, effected a breach, and endeavoured to take by assault the ravelin from which they had been repulsed the night before.
For the ravelinproved a sufficient protection for the besieged.
The Royalists retorted by pushing their trench and mines up to the ravelin of the Porte des Épars, whilst, on their side, the besieged prepared counter-mines.
These captains, wishing to show their generous courage and doing their duty marvellous well, entered the ravelin which the enemy had seized and held.
The latter point was chosen because there the walls of the ravelin being incomplete, gave greater scope for the effective play of the artillery.
But, none the less, the enemy succeeded in a few days in pushing their trenches and galleries right up to the walls of the ravelin of the Porte des Épars.
The citizens had undermined the ravelin and placed a store of powder there; and this was now fired, and the work flew into the air, with all the soldiers who had entered.
A tremendous attack was made upon the ravelin in front of the gate of the Cross.
The time was now at hand when the besieged foresaw that the ravelin of the Cross gate could not much longer be defended.
As soon as the Galeons begin to batter, we will also batter the Ravelin before the Cavalier, where the seven Pieces of Cannon are, which will certainly be ruin'd in two Hours, because our Fort of S.
The next day another attack was made by Mustapha, but without avail; the ravelin remained in Turkish hands, but it had cost them 2,000 men.
It stood without the walls, and was connected with the ravelin by a bridge, the possession of which was hotly contested by the combatants.
An untoward event soon put them in possession of the ravelin itself.
The loss of the ravelin gave the deepest concern to La Valette, which was not mitigated by the consideration that it was to be charged, in part at least, on the negligence of its defenders.
One thousand, at least, of the defenders fell, as, forced gradually from one defence to another, they saw the triple walls of theirravelin crumble successively before their eyes.
On the 2nd April the Polder Ravelin was carried by storm.
The rajah's people, who had kept up their false attack upon the ravelin with much more bravery and resolution than had been expected, also lost a good many men.
Then the gate was opened, and the French in the ravelin entered the fort, and became prisoners with the rest of the garrison.
The reason why the ravelin had been at last conceded was revealed.
Meanwhile, unknown to the Spaniards, the besieged burghers were silently and swiftly building inside the ravelin a solid half-moon shaped battlement.
A tremendous onset was made upon the gate of the Cross, and the ravelin was carried at last.
As soon as the ravelin was taken, they burst open the gate, at which I entered at the head of 200 dragoons, and seized the drawbridge.
The caponier is the vital point of the front, and is protected in important works by a ravelin and keep.
The ravelin is here introduced, and made so large that its faces are in prolongation of those of the bastions.
His trace includes an enlarged ravelin with flanks, the ends of which were intended to close the gaps at the end of the tenaille, and a keep to the ravelin with flanks.
The ravelin and bastions were thus captured successively, and where the bastions had been retrenched the same methods were used against the retrenchment.
New form of work called a demi-lune lunettee, the ravelin N being protected by two counterguards, O.
He provides a very large re-entering place of arms, also with a keep, the ditches of which are carefully traced so as to be protected from enfilade by the salients of the ravelin and bastion.
On the other hand, it made the ravelin liable to capture by the gorge.
This had the further advantage of giving great saliency to the ravelin for cross-fire over the terrain of the attack.
The arquebusiers who lined the ravelinshowered down on their heads missiles more formidable than stones and arrows.
Its ranks were thinned by the incessant fire from the ravelinand castle; and, though it still maintained a brave spirit, its strength was fast ebbing away.
A ravelinwas surprised, and a lodgment effected; and the cavalier, which formed one of the principal fortifications, had nearly been taken.
He gave orders therefore that the ravelin should be undermined, and doubted not that, with a few days' delay, the place would be in his hands.
The citizens continued to contest the approaches to the ravelin before the Cross-gate, but it had become obvious that they could not hold it long.
The first assault on the ravelin was made July 25--but the explosion of a mine at the instant threw the attacking column into disorder, and they were repulsed after a severe conflict, in which Stahrenberg himself was wounded.
Count Solms, on the other hand, came from the besieging camp into the ravelin to investigate the sudden uproar.
On the 24th June Captains Haen and Bievry were relieving watch in the trenches near the great north ravelin of the town --a bulwark which had already been much undermined from below and weakened above.
At ten o'clock 15 July, of the night of the 15th July, Prince Maurice ordered the mines to be sprung, when the north ravelin was blown into the air, and some forty of the garrison with it.
The ordinary ravelin he replaced by a heavy casemated caponier after the example of Montalembert, and, like Bousmard's, his own ravelin was a large and powerful work pushed out beyond the glacis.
