238 The Loss of Calais. of a high strong wall, the straight lines of more than thirty pieces against the unhappy The Earl of Rutland, when he returned * Simancas, Est. Leg. 810, fol. 11. Bruss., A. d. R., L. d. S. vol. xix. fol. 14. Ibid. vol. xix. fol. 20. Ibid. fol. 34. R. O. Mary, Foreign, 715. Brussels, A. d, R. xix. fol. 37. which were most extensive. Visions of victory and of an inglorious retreat of the French were floating before the mind's eye of Vandervile, and were fostered by the assurances of Lady Wentworth and of certain men, who had escaped out of Calais, and asserted that the town was in a state to hold out for some time.* Under such circumstances he did not think fit to expose the lives of three hundred brave men. The laws of war were very strict at that time. Soldiers who tried to enter a besieged town at night were hanged on the spot. The herald's account, however, was utterly false. The Earl's troops were few in number and nowise ready to cross. Had they even been ready, it would have been too late-Calais was lost the same night. After a heavy cannonade, which lasted the whole day, Marshal Strozzi had asked for permission to cross the harbour, and, if possible, to entrench himself on the pier. Thence he could annoy those who were repairing the breach at the water-gate, as well as those who were defending the suburb. The Duke of Guise granted his request. At the same time he ordered M. de Grandmont to be in readiness to go over with 400 Gascons to the new battery. D'Andelot, whose trenches had reached the foot of the wall, was ordered to make a simultaneous attack on the suburb. The Duke himself with a strong body of foot remained on the sandhills, ready to hasten to whatever spot there appeared a prospect of success. About an hour after midnight the water was low enough;t Strozzi and his men plunged into the harbour, half wading half swimming over. But the moon shone brightly on the scene of action, the English sentinels descried the advancing enemy, and gave the alarm. As soon as the French had climbed up the pier the watch opened a sharp fire upon them. To storm the breach was impossible, a deep wet ditch separated the pier from it. The fire was growing sharper every minute, and the French, entirely unprotected, had already lost some thirty men killed, and many wounded. To remain any longer would have been folly, so Strozzi fell back upon the harbour. D'Andelot at the same time advanced with ladders towards the suburb, but fared little better, and after a sharp fight was equally forced to retire. As soon, however, as the two attacks had begun, Guise, suspecting that almost all the garrison would have flocked to these spots, * Brussels, A. d. R., vol. xix. fol. 37, 39. Paris, Bibl. Imp. Mss. Fr. 4738; St. Vict. 1062; St. Germain, 991; Paris, Arch. de l'Emp. K. 149, fol. 8. surmise. watch had the brave ordered Grandmont to go over. If he found but little resistance he was to storm the breach and occupy the castle. The French accordingly entered the water, waded across to the pier, and with the help of ladders reached the top. They found before them a deep, wet ditch, and scarcely any breach whatever. Had there been any men to defend the castle they could not have carried it.* But Guise had been right in his The undisciplined soldiers of the almost all abandoned their post, men running to the spot whence came the noise of the fight.† Eight or ten men who remained were easily kept off by the fire of the French arquebusiers, while other Frenchmen went down into the ditch, swam across the water, planted their ladders against the wall, and made themselves masters of the breach before succour could arrive from the town. They immediately occupied the whole castle, with the exception of a tower standing between it and the town, into which the few men remaining of the English garrison had retired. The Duke of Guise, as soon as he perceived that the castle was won, led on the reserve and entered it. Having given the necessary orders, and leaving his brothers, the Duke d'Aumale and the Marquis d'Elbeuf and d'Etrées, General of the Ordnance, with other officers, and about 800 men to defend the castle, he himself returned to the other bank to provide other reinforcements for the moment when the water would again be at low ebb. The English were stunned at first by the unexpected blow that had fallen on them. They soon recovered, however. Aucher, the marshal, on hearing the alarm, had arrived at the gate leading from the town to the castle. He fully understood that if the French could hold out for ten hours until they received succour, Calais would be irretrievably lost. The defences of the castle towards the town were not strong; the English much superior in number, and at last ready to fight. Collecting as many troops as he could, he led them across the bridge against the castle. From the tower which the English still held, a sharp fire was poured into the castle yard, and fireballs were thrown into it, while on the bridge and under the gateway a desperate struggle took place. For the first time during this siege the English fought well. The citizens knew that they fought for their home, while the soldiers tried, under *Brussels, Arch. du Roy., Pap. d'Etat 47, fol. 4. Paris, Bibl. Imp. St. Vict. 1062. Paris, Arch. d'Emp. R. 1491, No. 8: the guidance of an able and determined chief, to atone for their former conduct. They entered the castle yard, but could not maintain themselves in it. From the adjacent buildings the French poured a murderous fire down upon them, which forced them to fall back over the bridge. By this time John Highfield had, by order of Lord Wentworth, brought some cannon to bear upon the gate, which the French were trying to barricade. But the shots took little effect. Time was fast elapsing, so Aucher again collected his men, and led them a second time over the bridge. Guise, however, had not been inactive either. On the sand-hills some cannon had been pointed against the tower, and the English arquebusiers had been forced to abandon it. Some light pieces were also brought to bear upon the open space that separated the town from the castle. When the English renewed the attack they were vigorously opposed in front, while the shots from Guise's cannon took them in flank. Aucher's son was killed fighting at his father's side; Aucher himself fell mortally wounded, and with him fell, too, the last hope of Calais. The ranks of the English wavered, then they retired to the town, leaving the French in undisputed possession of the castle. All hope had vanished. Lord Wentworth, who was holding a council of war in a house on the market-place, sent John Highfield to the castle to treat for surrender. M. d'Etrées received him courteously. He proposed a capitulation, by which the town was immediately to be surrendered to the French, with whatever ordnance stores and property it contained; the common soldiers to return to England; the inhabitants to leave either for England or Flanders; Wentworth himself, with fifty others, to remain prisoners of war until they should be ransomed. The treaty was accepted at once by Lord Wentworth. Guise ratified it gladly, having been anxious, all the the time, respecting his brothers and the many brave men he had left in the castle.* The French entered, the prisoners were chosen and led off, the soldiers kept apart to be sent to England, and the citizens who wished to leave the place were, during the following days, escorted by Scotch horse to Gravelines and Dunkirk. The inhabitants were not treated with harshness. Nearly all of them were able to secure some money about their persons, and none were illtreated. On the French side it was a gallant feat of arms; on the English, it was a notable instance of that incompetence in our *Paris, Bibl. Imp. F. 4738, 17458, S. Vict. 1062. Arch. de l'Emp. K. 1491, fol. 8. 7. 43. 48. commanders which has so often brought discredit on the English name; and it shows that under bad government and bad leadership, even the spirit of the English people may sink, and the courage of the English soldier give way. Calais received a garrison of 3000 men under Paul de Thermes. The rest of the army proceeded first towards Gravelines; but Vandervile seemed so resolute to defend the place, which had a competent garrison, that the French fell back. On the 13th they appeared before Guisnes. Lord, Grey had a garrison of about 800 English, and 450 Flemings, and 40 Spanish arquebusiers sent to him by Bugnicourt. The town, which was weak, he abandoned; the castle, on the contrary, he defended with great resolution. But Guisnes was already doomed. The news of the fate of Calais had dismayed everybody in England except the Queen, who immediately gave orders to recover it. furious storm, however, that blew on the 9th dispersed the fleet. Lord Pembroke, who was to take the chief command, left the army, pretending to be ill. Most of the soldiers, following his example, deserted; nobody would do his duty; none of the orders were executed. Philip himself, despairing of success, advised the Queen not to make any further efforts. Lord Grey, however, not knowing what was passing, withstood three assaults made after a terrible fire. At the fourth, a bastion was carried after three hours' fight, and the garrison forced to retire to the keep. This latter was so weak that it could not hold out. Lord Grey, therefore, surrendered Guisnes nearly on the same conditions as Calais. The officers remained prisoners, the citizens and the common soldiers were left at liberty. Small as the garrison was, from 300 to 400 English and Flemings had fallen; and of the 40 Spaniards, 22 were killed, and the rest nearly all wounded. Lord Grey had done his duty well, and, though unsuccessful, he was honoured even by his enemies. This was the last siege. The garrison of Hammes, as soon as it heard of the loss of Guisnes, revolted against the governor, Lord Edward Dudley, and abandoned the fort. With the exception of a few small places near Gravelines, which the Spaniards had occupied some months ago, the whole of the Pale was in possession of France. Guise did not attack any of the Flemish fortresses. The Duke of Savoy had at last been able to collect a force, not suffi cient indeed to meet him in the open field, * Paris, Arch. de l'Emp. K. 1491, fol. 39. Ibid. fol. 39, 50, 56. Simancas, Est. 811, fol. 24. but quite strong enough to hinder his progress, and prevent him from undertaking a new siege. Guisnes and Hammes having been blown up, the French army retired. In France the news of this extraordinary victory was everywhere hailed with the greatest joy. The praise of the victor was sung in Latin and French. The capture of Calais was, in France and throughout Europe, looked on as the equivalent for the loss of St. Quentin. The two cases were, in one respect, very different. Frenchmen might have been proud of the defence of St. Quentin, and of Coligny, who, had he not been made a martyr, would have been cited as a hero; whilst it was a deep humiliation to the English to have lost an almost impregnable fortress by their own fault. But instead of rousing the spirit of the nation, as the losses of 1557 had done in France, it only created a sense of the utter weakness of England. Nobody would strike a blow for the recovery of Calais. Many schemes were started for the conquest of the Pale, but none were carried into effect. In the treaty of Château Cambresis, indeed, Elizabeth had, with the aid of Philip, a clause inserted that Calais was to be restored to England after five years; but it was a mere form to gratify the English. Nobody expected the promise to be kept. Calais, indeed, some years later, when internal dissensions had lowered the power of France, was torn from its grasp. But it was done by the Spaniards, who were then no longer the allies of England. Calais remained lost for ever to England. Of the principal actors in this drama little remains to be said. Guise was murdered some years later by a servant of the Colignys. Lord Grey was treated with great distinction. Mary conferred the Order of the Garter on him; Philip allowed him to be exchanged for the Count de la Rochefoucault; Elizabeth on his return named him to the command of the forces on the northern marches. Lord Wentworth was kept captive in France. He regained his liberty at the peace of Chateau Cambresis, strange to say, without paying any ransom. Queen Mary would not hear his name spoken, and Philip ordered his wife to be arrested, and his goods sequestered.* Elizabeth on his return refused to see him;t everybody called him a traitor and a coward. He was, indeed, acquitted by his peers, but it was a mock trial, gone through at a period when Eliza Brussels, Arch. d. R., Pap. d'Etat. 67, fol. 66. Simancas, Est. Leg. 813. beth, having recently ascended the throne, dared not use rigorous measures. * He came over to England in the month of April; on the 21st he was arrested, and tried next day. His real crime was passed over in silence, the whole case was put in a false light, and even the very dates assigned to the events were false in the indictments. Though direct proofs do not exist that he had treated with Guise to deliver the town into his hands, no doubt can be entertained that Calais was lost by his fault. The false intelligence he gave to the Queen, the opposition he made to receive any succour until it was too late, his recalling the garrison of Newneham, and his subsequent pusillanimity, were the real reasons of its fall. His peers. acquitted him, history never can. ART. VIII. SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHY. Ar a time when the first successful submarine cable has been laid across the Atlantic, and a second has been recovered from depths once thought unfathomable, many persons will be led to consider how far these great achievements, following on failures almost as great, have been due to mere good fortune, or to a real progress in knowledge. The object of this article is shortly to explain the advances which have lately been made in theory and practice by those who carry out the manufacture and submersion of telegraph cables. To make this explanation intelligible to the general reader, it will be well first to describe what a submarine cable is, and what are the functions it has to perform, although probably few who read this article will be so entirely ignorant of the subject as to suppose, with an ingenious correspondent of the English Mechanic and Mirror of Science, that the copper conductor is a long rope which slips backwards and forwards inside a gutta-percha tube, so as to ring a bell in America when pulled by the clerk in England. The electrical conductor in a cable really is a copper rope in almost all cables now made, though a single wire is still sometimes used; when small, three wires generally form the strand; when larger, seven wires are used. Single wires were first employed, but they sometimes broke at a brittle part, and when large, were inconveniently stiff, tending to force their way out through the insulating sheath of gutta-percha. The seven wires of the strand never break all at one point, and the fracture of any one produces R. O. Baga de Secretis, xxxviii. 242 Submarine Telegraphy. no sensible effect on the conductor as a The interstices between the several wires a die of such size as to allow a convenient succession of alternate layers of gutta-percha If the cable is to have only one conductor, These iron wires are very generally galvanized to prevent rust. In many cases they are further covered by a double serving of hemp, and a bituminous compound of mineral pitch, Stockholm tar, and powdered silica, patented by Messrs. Bright and This compound is used in the PerClark. sian Gulf Cable, the Lowestoft-Norderney (Hanover) Cable, and several less important lines, and seems to answer well. In other cases, as in the present Atlantic Cables, each iron wire is separately covered with a hempen serving, and the served wires are then laid round the core as before: the cable in this case looks like a hemp instead of an iron rope. Many other forms have been proposed, and a few adopted, but before these can be discussed, the duties which the cable has to perform, as a rope, |