On the Attack and Defense of Fortresses

OF MINES. 3

him Tests of all kinds, in the shortest and most accurate manner, in Earths, Towers, Mills, and other masonry works, the effects of which he often wished to see. Care was taken to note the diversity, according to the quantity of Powder employed. Three other Companies * have appeared since that time; but we have limited ourselves to speaking of the services of this one: and because it was composed of Miners who had already rendered great services, we shall retrace what they had done most remarkably before their reunion.

The Siege of Candia was what began to attract a great reputation for them; for everyone knows that this Place was defended much more by Mines than otherwise: nevertheless, as the troop was then small in number, the Ambassador of Venice took only six of them, who had a Commission from the Grand Master of Artillery, and fifty crowns per month, with double rations of bread. They were given a large number of Workers, whose labor they directed, and whom they used with success. The rest of the Miners were dispersed at Charleroi, Sedan, at the Arsenal of Paris, and in various Places of the Kingdom.

At the Holland Campaign they acquitted themselves of their duty in a signal manner at the taking of the Places where they were employed, such as at Bommel, Crevecoeur, Nijmegen and

* Since the Creation of this Company, the King had a second one raised in 1695, after the Siege of Montmélian: command of it was given to the Sieur Esprit, Engineer. The Megrigny Company, reunited under the authority of the Grand Master of Artillery in 1705, has also been regarded as a Company of Miners since 1673, when it was designated to work on the Counter-Mines of the Citadel of Tournai, and has served since then in the field like the others, although it is paid only as Infantry. There was a fourth Company of Miners, namely that of Delorme, composed of 60 men, which had the same pay as the second Company; but it was not included in the ordinance of winter quarters.