"Cannon" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... those canters, says he, preaching and picking your pocket. What about sanctimonious Cromwell and his ironsides that put the women and children of Drogheda to the sword with the bible text God is love pasted round the mouth of his cannon? The bible! Did you read that skit in the United Irishman today about that ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce
... the Government of the Grand Pensionary, who had held his own against Cromwell and against Louis XIV., made Holland the first naval power of the world, and scared London with the thunder of the Dutch cannon in the Thames. Nothing but the restoration of the hereditary principle in the person of William of Orange saved Amsterdam and Rotterdam from falling at the end of the seventeenth century, as they fell at the end of the eighteenth, under the dominion of an invader. ...
— France and the Republic - A Record of Things Seen and Learned in the French Provinces - During the 'Centennial' Year 1889 • William Henry Hurlbert
... of Chandarnagar. His next move was to give active aid to a certain Mir Jafir, a pretender to the throne of the unfriendly Suraj-ud-Dowlah. The French naturally took sides with Suraj against Clive. In 1757 Clive drew up 1100 Europeans, 2100 sepoys, and nine cannon in a grove of mango trees at Plassey, a few miles south of the city of Murshidabad, and there attacked Suraj, who, with an army of 68,000 native troops and with French artillerymen to work his fifty- three cannon, anticipated an easy victory. The outcome was a brilliant victory for Clive, ...
— A Political and Social History of Modern Europe V.1. • Carlton J. H. Hayes
... Bankes, with her daughter and her maid-servants, assisted by five soldiers, successfully defended the middle ward against the attack of one of the storming divisions, the whole defensive force not exceeding eighty men, unprovided with cannon. It would probably have fallen, however, had not Lord ...
— A Yacht Voyage Round England • W.H.G. Kingston
... collected upwards of two hundredweight of old metal: pieces of a kedge anchor and a cabin stove, crowbars, a hinge and lock of a door, a ship's marking-iron, a piece of a ship's caboose, a soldier's bayonet, a cannon ball, several pieces of money, a shoe-buckle, and the like. Such were the spoils ...
— Records of a Family of Engineers • Robert Louis Stevenson
... wait, an' when de time come He choosened a upsta's room, An' dar he sot (ef I kin make de rhyme come) A-singin' "Hark fum de Toom"! An' den he got what he aint had oughter, Ez all de creeturs said, A gun, a cannon, an' a tub er water, An' hid um ...
— Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit • Joel Chandler Harris
... about us a number of little articles that had come from there, and which had places of honor in our home. We had some black pebbles large as cannon-balls, that had been chosen from the thousands lying on the Long-Beach because centuries of washing had polished and rounded them exquisitely. These pebbles always played an important part every winter evening, ...
— The Story of a Child • Pierre Loti
... close to the side of Ayesha, the favorite wife of the Prophet, and she fixed upon my face her eyes, brilliant and humid, like the reflection of stars in a well; I have recognized, in the At-Meidan, the famous beauty of that poor Greek woman killed by a cannon ball at the base of the serpentine column; I have been face to face, in the Fanar, with Kara-Abderrahman, the handsome young Turk of the time of Orkhan; I have seen Coswa, the she-camel of the Prophet; I ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 1 • Charles Dudley Warner
... Washington left his camp-fires burning, surrounded the British, captured two hundred prisoners, and got away to Morristown Heights in safety. If the ground had not frozen, General Washington could not have moved his forty cannon; but, fortunately, the thermometer was again on his side, and he never ...
— Comic History of the United States • Bill Nye
... advices that a party of twenty-thousand Prussians, having attacked a much superior body of Austrians, put them to flight, and took a great number of prisoners with their military chest, cannon, and baggage." ...
— History of English Humour, Vol. 2 (of 2) • Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange
... which seemed to come from the bowels of the earth, shook the ground beneath them: the cannon were resuming ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant
... section of the nobility and gentry to vindicate the right of King James. No person of adequate talents or authority was found to supply the place of the great and gallant Lord Dundee; for General Cannon, who succeeded in command, was not only deficient in military skill, but did not possess the confidence, nor understand the character of the Highland chiefs, who, with their clansmen, constituted by far the most important section of the army. Accordingly no enterprise of any importance was attempted; ...
— Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers and Other Poems • W.E. Aytoun
... Cartier's Officers and Crew Jacques Quartier, the Pilot Discovery of the Remains of Jacques Cartier's Vessel The Bronze Cannon The French who remained after the Capitulation of 1629 The Arms of the Dominion Militia Uniforms Horses Ship-building at Quebec under French Domination The Conquest of New York The French Refugees of Oxford, Mass. The Venerable Mother ...
— Picturesque Quebec • James MacPherson Le Moine
... expectations great. Brest was perhaps to be taken; but Martinico and St. Domingo, at least. When lo! the important island of Aix was taken without the least resistance, seven hundred men made prisoners, and some pieces of cannon carried off. From thence we sailed toward Rochfort, which it seems was our main object; and consequently one should have supposed that we had pilots on board who knew all the soundings and landing places there and thereabouts: ...
— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield
... enough, with the name of Shelburne, after the British statesman who was responsible for the Peace of Versailles. The occasion was one of great ceremony. His Excellency, as he landed from the sloop Sophie, was saluted by the booming of cannon from the ships and from the shore. He proceeded up the main street, through a lane of armed men. At the place appointed for his reception he was met by the magistrates and principal citizens, and presented with an address. In the evening ...
— The United Empire Loyalists - A Chronicle of the Great Migration - Volume 13 (of 32) in the series Chronicles of Canada • W. Stewart Wallace
... being brought thus far to perfection, with the Musrole and Trench, now let a gentle Cavezan take their place; with a smooth Cannon-Bit in his Mouth, & a plain watering Chain, Cheek large, and the Kirble thick, round and big, loosely hanging on his nether Lip; and thus mount him, and perfect your Horse with the Bit in all the 'foresaid Lessons, as you did with the Snaffle; ...
— The School of Recreation (1684 edition) • Robert Howlett
... Sometimes he reaches the goal of his ambition by a purposed extravagance. What can be more foolish than the description which follows of a man equal to the most difficult occasion: "He can light his cigar, when the battle is on, with the friction of a passing cannon-ball." In yet worse taste is another piece of fustian, invented by the same author: "When a 'twister' off the hills gets ready to do business in a 20-knot sou'wester it sends no messenger boys ahead to distribute its itinerary handbills." There is no fault of style which ...
— American Sketches - 1908 • Charles Whibley
... had no thought or care for physical pain. The bench went over with a crash, and for all that the rushes may have deadened in part the sound of its fall, to my nervous ear it boomed like the report of a cannon through ...
— The Shame of Motley • Raphael Sabatini
... arm, and rising whenever the latter groaned or turned; but when, toward morning, the merchant fell into a sounder sleep, Anton forgot his task, his head fell heavy upon his hands outstretched on the table, he neither saw nor heard; and amid the screams of the wounded, and the thundering of cannon which attended the taking of a stoutly-defended town, amid all the horrors of a bloody conflict, he slept like a tired boy ...
— Debit and Credit - Translated from the German of Gustav Freytag • Gustav Freytag
... came forward and showed her a fine gown he had made for her. Petruchio, whose intent was that she should have neither cap nor gown, found as much fault with that. 'O mercy, Heaven!' said he, 'what stuff is here! What, do you call this a sleeve? it is like a demi-cannon, carved up and down like an apple tart.' The tailor said: 'You bid me make it according to the fashion of the times'; and Katharine said, she never saw a better fashioned gown. This was enough for Petruchio, and privately desiring these people might be paid ...
— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles and Mary Lamb
... his armor; he grasped his arms. With the disuse of defensive armor the word has practically gone out of military use, but it is still employed in the navy, where the distinction is clearly preserved; any vessel provided with cannon is an armed vessel; an armored ship is an ironclad. Anything that can be wielded in fight may become a weapon, as a pitchfork or a paving-stone; arms are especially made and designed ...
— English Synonyms and Antonyms - With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions • James Champlin Fernald
... were the authors, and for which lynching would hardly have been a sufficient punishment. It was in the early hours of the morning and while we were still "dreaming the happy hours away," that the loud report of a cannon shook the steamer from stem to stern, this being followed ...
— A Ball Player's Career - Being the Personal Experiences and Reminiscensces of Adrian C. Anson • Adrian C. Anson
... there was a report like the bark of a cannon and a torn and shredded end of hawser came writhing and twisting up out of the sea, sluing across the face of the pilot-house as though possessed of all the venom of the living thing it ...
— Dan Merrithew • Lawrence Perry
... branch that had a certain kind of fork as thick around as his little finger. In cutting this he left two short "feet" and one long one. To Tom's mind it looked something like an old-fashioned cannon, with the line securely tied to the ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts Snowbound - A Tour on Skates and Iceboats • George A. Warren
... sound does not have far to travel; if the storm is distant, the interval is much longer, corresponding to the greater distance through which the sound travels. Sound does not move instantaneously, but requires time for its transmission. The report of a distant cannon is heard after the flash and smoke are seen; the report of a near cannon is heard the ...
— General Science • Bertha M. Clark
... the Ganges we knew from the noise of the musketry and cannon that the battle was going on, and from the cloud of smoke rising from cantonments we feared that all the houses were on fire. We went with others to the house of an English merchant whom we knew well, and then as the natives were gathering around we betook ourselves to boats ...
— Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, 1839-1877 • James Kennedy
... placed as was this eminence for overlooking from its summit the whole battlefield, the reiterated discharge of cannon and musketry covered it with such a cloud of smoke that it was impossible to make out from it anything but masses lost amid a murderous fog. At last, when an hour had passed in this desperate conflict, through the skirts ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - MARY STUART—1587 • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE
... House at a dinner to meet a little tin soldier cousin in white epaulettes, who was over from Germany ... and (the German Ambassador) Count Munster told me that the French had hoisted their flag on a reef, as he said, within cannon-shot of Jersey, as to the British or neutral nature of which there had long been a dispute between the two Governments.' [Footnote: The Memoir has a note upon this episode of the Ecrehous Books, which led to the publication of Parliamentary papers ...
— The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke V1 • Stephen Gwynn
... Italian force in a single combat, and, putting all to the hazard, attempt to annihilate the King of France and his army together, so overwhelming the conqueror in the ruins of his ambition. The messenger found Charles busy superintending the passage of the last of his cannon over the mountain of Pontremoli. This was no easy matter, seeing that there was no sort of track, and the guns had to be lifted up and lowered by main farce, and each piece needed the arms of as many ...
— The Borgias - Celebrated Crimes • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... out of the main reception hall, and adjoined that of his sister Isabella. Both rooms looked out upon the Plato, and over the Gulf Stream and outer portions of the harbor, where the grim Moro tower and its cannon frown over the narrow entrance of the inner bay. One vessel could hardly work its way in ship shape through the channel, but a thousand might lay safely at anchor inside this remarkably land-locked harbor. At the moment when we would introduce the reader to the house of the rich ...
— The Heart's Secret - The Fortunes of a Soldier, A Story of Love and the Low Latitudes • Maturin Murray
... revolution. Besides the arms in the hands of the people, there are public magazines. They have abundance of horses, but only a part of their country would admit the service of horses. They would want cannon, ammunition, ships, sailors, soldiers and officers, for which they are disposed to look to the United States, it being always understood that every service and furniture will be well paid. Corn costs about twenty livres the one hundred pounds. They have flesh in the greatest abundance, insomuch, ...
— The Writings of Thomas Jefferson - Library Edition - Vol. 6 (of 20) • Thomas Jefferson
... passage of a snow-filled valley a dull, booming sound like the noise of far-distant cannon was heard. It was evidently connected with the subsidence of large areas of the surface crust. Apparently large cavities had formed beneath the snow and the weight of ourselves and the sledges caused the crust to sink and the air to ...
— The Home of the Blizzard • Douglas Mawson
... superintends the forging and testing of cannon, guns, and other military equipments, and ...
— Elements of Civil Government • Alexander L. Peterman
... cannon-ball affected him no more than a leaf an elephant; he did not know he was ...
— Life at High Tide - Harper's Novelettes • Various
... 1800 was well on its way to the climax when Desaix at last reported himself for duty in Italy. He was immediately assigned to the command of a corps of two infantry divisions. Three days later (June 14), detached, with Boudet's division, at Rivalta, he heard the cannon of Marengo on his right. Taking the initiative he marched at once towards the sound, meeting Bonaparte's staff officer, who had come to recall him, half way on the route. He arrived with Boudet's division at the moment ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 2 - "Demijohn" to "Destructor" • Various
... their leave just as the midday cannon boomed from Sant' Elmo. They had promised to come and dine in a day or two. After their departure, Miriam showed as little disposition to make comments as she had to indulge in expectation before their arrival. Eleanor and her husband put less ...
— The Emancipated • George Gissing
... The mention of cannon and other terms in this tale shows that either it was written during the last century or it has ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 4 • Richard F. Burton
... been carried up bodily to a loaded cannon, and required to let it off that moment, he could not have been in a state of greater consternation than when he heard these words. He, Fladdock—Fladdock in full militia uniform, Fladdock the General, ...
— Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit • Charles Dickens
... fatally benevolent. I hated at all events Mr. Rumble's picture, and had my bottled resentment ready when, later on, I found my distracted friend had been stuffed by Mrs. Wimbush into the mouth of another cannon. A young artist in whom she was intensely interested, and who had no connexion with Mr. Rumble, was to show how far he could make him go. Poor Paraday, in return, was naturally to write something somewhere about the young artist. She played her victims against each other with ...
— The Death of the Lion • Henry James
... not sich fools as that; but it has come to my ears that ammunition for the cannon is runnin' mighty low, an' to repel an attack, even though there be no danger come from it, will be ...
— The Minute Boys of the Mohawk Valley • James Otis
... the case when I produced cannon balls from a hat, for my spectators, laying aside their gravity, expressed their delighted admiration by the strangest and most ...
— The Lock and Key Library/Real Life #2 • Julian Hawthorne
... Tank to the memory of Sir Louis Cavignari and the officers and non-commissioned officers and men of the Guides killed in the defence of the Kabul Residency, September 3, 1879. In the foreground is a brass cannon captured during the Relief of Chitral ...
— The Story of the Guides • G. J. Younghusband
... the watery green, As stream'd their pennons on the favouring gale: The victor vessel gain'd the sovereign boon; The gothic palace and the gay saloon, Begemm'd with eyes that pierc'd the hiding veil, Echoed to music and its merry glee And cannon roll'd its thunder o'er the sea, To greet that vessel ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 13, No. 374 • Various
... tattered ensign down! Long has it waved on high, And many an eye has danced to see That banner in the sky; Beneath it rung the battle shout, And burst the cannon's roar;— The meteor of the ocean air Shall ...
— The Golden Treasury of American Songs and Lyrics • Various
... fight that you Democratic men put up against the combination by the Committee on Rules under the leadership of Speaker Cannon and you led that fight against the domination of the committee over the House. You are today in this same position of political power. Can you consistently oppose now the things for which you fought so bitterly a short time ago? We know how rapidly ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V • Ida Husted Harper
... soldier bold, And used to war's alarms; But a cannon ball took off his legs, So he laid ...
— McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey
... us, which we know very well. I went afterwards to see a famous moving picture,(13) and I never saw anything so pretty. You see a sea ten miles wide, a town on t'other end, and ships sailing in the sea, and discharging their cannon. You see a great sky, with moon and stars, etc. I'm a ...
— The Journal to Stella • Jonathan Swift
... a glad and a sunny look, and, while the morning was yet young, the sound of the salute from the cannon on the ramparts of Berwick, announced that the royal bride was approaching. The pavilions occupied a commanding situation on the heath, and the noble retinue of the princes could be observed moving along, their gay colours flashing in the sun, a few ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume III • Various
... in Clay County, with the assent of the natives there, had opened a factory for the manufacture of arms "to pay the Jackson mob in their own way,"* and it was rumored that both sides were supplying themselves with cannon, to make the coming contest the more determined. Governor Dunklin, fearing a further injury to the good name of the state, wrote to Colonel J. Thornton urging a compromise, and on June 10 Judge Ryland sent a communication to A. S. Gilbert, asking him to call ...
— The Story of the Mormons: • William Alexander Linn
... are thrown aside. His shrubbery bloom's and breathes its fragrance upon the air in vain he likes it not. His ear no longer drinks the rich melody of music; it longs for the trumpet's clangor, and the cannon's roar. Even the prattle of his babes, once so sweet, no longer affects him; and the angel smile of his wife, which hitherto touched his bosom with ecstasy so unspeakable, is now unfelt and unseen. Greater objects have taken possession of his soul. His imagination has been dazzled ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick
... towers the mighty cupola of Maryland Height, far overtopping the other peaks, and farther down the stream, like a diminishing reflection of it, the softer swell of South Mountain. An ordinary rifle-cannon on Maryland Height can with the greatest ease play at bowls to the other summits. From this eminence one Colonel Ford, on September 13, 1862, toppled down his spiked and coward cannon: the hostile guns of the enemy quickly swarmed up the summit he had abandoned, and ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII. No. 31. October, 1873. • Various
... citie" Francis Scott Key found many things which appealed to his patriotic soul. On the State House hill was the old cannon brought to Maryland by Lord Baltimore's colony and rescued from a protracted bath in St. Mary's River to take its place among the many relics of history which make Annapolis the repository of old stories tinged by time and fancy with a mystic coloring of superstition. He lived in the old ...
— Literary Hearthstones of Dixie • La Salle Corbell Pickett
... as was my career, I was not fated to continue in it long. Like the shot propelled from the mouth of the cannon, which, in its extreme velocity, is turned from the direction which has been given it by glancing along the weakest substance, so was my course of life changed from its direction by meeting ...
— The Pacha of Many Tales • Captain Frederick Marryat
... Liegeois, his order was disregarded, and the Vauxhall now known by the name of the Vauxhall, was finished. When finished, the bishop would not permit it to be opened, but his commands being disregarded, he came down with two hundred soldiers and two pieces of cannon and took possession. This created a revolution, and the bishop was ultimately obliged to fly his territory and seek assistance. The Prussians marched an army into the city, and there was apparent submission, ...
— Olla Podrida • Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)
... many years ago," said Septimus. "She wore pigtails and I burned a hole in her pinafore with a toy cannon and she slapped my face. Afterwards ...
— Septimus • William J. Locke
... commanding this promontory on the side of the land. Between it and the water the Visconti, in more recent days, had built a square fort; and the headland had been further strengthened by the addition of connecting walls and bastions pierced for cannon. Combining precipitous cliffs, strong towers, and easy access from the lake below, this fortress of Musso was exactly the fit station for a pirate. So long as he kept the command of the lake, he had little to fear from land attacks, and had a splendid basis for aggressive ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece • John Addington Symonds
... exclaimed Terry, rising to his feet, and shaking hands with his victor. "I niver met any one who could down me in that sthyle. I don't know how ye did the same, but I haven't any doubts that ye done it, as me great uncle remarked whin the cannon ball took ...
— The Hunters of the Ozark • Edward S. Ellis
... we all bowed. Then he departed, taking Jack with him, leaning on whose arm he stepped down into the boat; and as the men put their oars into the water, I jumped with a sudden start at the sudden explosion of a subsidiary cannon, which went on firing some dozens of times till the proper number had been completed supposed to be due to ...
— The Fixed Period • Anthony Trollope
... posted on the left wing, behind a fence, from which they sorely galled the British as they advanced to the attack, and cut them down by whole ranks at once. In their retreat they lost several men, and among others the brave Major Andrew McCleary, who was killed by a cannon shot after he had ...
— Neal, the Miller - A Son of Liberty • James Otis
... the terrible firmness of the orator that had never failed,—of the moral will that marched like a warrior on the cannon. At that instant he was interrupted; a letter was brought to him: he opened it,—his face fell, he shook from limb to limb; it was one of the anonymous warnings by which the hate and revenge of those yet left alive ...
— Zanoni • Edward Bulwer Lytton
... three guns were fired from the convent—and simultaneously a cannon was fired down the street, from a party of Mexicans in the distance. Capt. Lewis faced about just in time to see Capt. Walker drop down upon the steps of the convent, as he emphatically ...
— The Humors of Falconbridge - A Collection of Humorous and Every Day Scenes • Jonathan F. Kelley
... enemies. The shore was lined with fierce-faced savages, painted and feathered, armed with bows and arrows, lances and darts and bucklers. Ojeda launched his boats, in each of which was a paterero, or small cannon, with a number of soldiers crouching down out of sight. The armor of the Spaniards protected them from the Indian arrows, while the cotton armor of the savages and their light shields were no defense against ...
— Days of the Discoverers • L. Lamprey
... tremor, the Pony Rider Boys were thrown prone upon their faces on the rocky floor, partially stunned by the sudden shock. A distant boom, like the report of a cannon sounded in their ears, then all at once a terrifying rending of the rocks about them, accompanied by ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in the Ozarks • Frank Gee Patchin
... Elector Frederick, stood the Castle of Lindburg. It was one of those feudal piles of the Middle Ages, impregnable to the engines of ancient warfare, but which were destined to crumble before the iron shots with which cannon assailed them, as the system they represented was compelled to succumb to the light of that truth which the Gospel was then diffusing over the greater part ...
— Count Ulrich of Lindburg - A Tale of the Reformation in Germany • W.H.G. Kingston
... French navy and by other leading European nations, has been ordered for use in the German navy by the following decree of the German Emperor, dated January 11 last: "On the report made to me, I approve the adoption of the Hotchkiss revolving cannon as a part of the artillery of my navy; and each of my ships, according to their classification, shall in general be armed with this weapon in such a manner that every point surrounding the vessel may be protected by the fire of at least two ...
— Scientific American Supplement No. 275 • Various
... in St. Petersburg, the cannon roared; there were both joy and sorrow in what the bells ...
— The Daughter of an Empress • Louise Muhlbach
... that Laudohn was in the mind to make a handsome imperial bulletin. Day dawned on a rout as entire as ever was witnessed in a barbarian campaign. The enemy were flying in all directions like a horde of Tartars, and camp, cannon, baggage, standards, every thing was left at the mercy ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXII. - June, 1843.,Vol. LIII. • Various
... of an extract from Petrarch's Letters, with reference to the conspiracy of the Doge, M. Faliero, containing the poet's opinion of the matter. Heard a heavy firing of cannon towards Comacchio—the Barbarians rejoicing for their principal pig's birthday, which is to-morrow—or Saint day—I forget which. Received a ticket for the first ball to-morrow. Shall not go to the first, but intend going to the second, as ...
— Life of Lord Byron, With His Letters And Journals, Vol. 5 (of 6) • (Lord Byron) George Gordon Byron
... shall maintain my tongue's true speech; For it is not frequented to such lies, As wrangling Leicester and proud Richmond use: It cannot set out, like a thundering drum Or roaring cannon, stuff'd with nought but brags, The multitudes of seas dyed red with blood,[317] And famous cities into cinders turn'd By their ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VIII (4th edition) • Various
... Donnaconna, in his village. The two young Indians who acted as guides and interpreters had been filling the ears of their countrymen with marvelous tales of France. Especially, they had "made great brags," Cartier says, about his cannon; and Donnaconna begged him to fire some of them. Cartier, quite willing to give the savages a sense of his wonderful resources, ordered twelve guns fired in quick succession. At the roar of the cannon, he says, "they were greatly astonished and amazed; for they thought ...
— French Pathfinders in North America • William Henry Johnson
... same day. This position was one of immense strength, being a long ridge, with a very deep valley in front. Upon the opposite side of this ravine the slope was as steep and sharp as that of Busaco itself, so that the opposite crest was within easy cannon shot. The enemy, in order to attack the British position, would have to descend into the bottom of this steep ravine, and then climb up the precipitous ascent, to meet the British soldiers awaiting them, fresh and unshaken, at the top. So strong, indeed, was the position ...
— The Young Buglers • G.A. Henty
... solemn silence with the crash of a hundred cannon. There, where even a whisper carried miles, the shock of it was like a blow in the face. Back and forth the mountains threw it to one another. I thought the echoes of it would never die away as it passed rumbling through ...
— The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle • Hugh Lofting
... passing hour, and finally, to lend a ready hand to their accomplishment. Then his heart grew still colder and more feelingless. He thirsted for excitement, lawful or unlawful. He longed for the bloody onset to come; the deafening roar of the cannon was a music in his ears, and the murderous combat brought a restlessness that pleased him. But human nature is strange—passing strange. At intervals he was mild and gentle. Standing upon the battlefield, when night had drawn her silvery curtain ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII No. 6 June 1848 • Various
... sending in this patache five pieces of artillery as ballast. They are medium-sized cannon, in very good condition; and, with their ammunition cases and fittings may be utilized by the ships which your Excellency may be pleased to despatch. They will not be missed here, for we lack powder and ammunition even for ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 - Volume III, 1569-1576 • E.H. Blair
... the ties that bound them to their common fatherland. The Carthaginian officer of the ordinary type estimated his mercenaries, and even the Libyan farmers, very much as men in modern warfare estimate cannon-balls; hence such disgraceful proceedings as the betrayal of the Libyan troops by their general Himilco in 358, which was followed by a dangerous insurrection of the Libyans, and hence that proverbial cry of "Punic faith," which did the Carthaginians no small injury. Carthage experienced ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen
... inhabitants perished in the ruins. The hamlets of San Roque, Misericordia, and Santo Nino, with over 150 inhabitants, were completely covered with burning debris. At night-time the sight of the fire column, heaving up thousands of tons of stones, accompanied by noises like the booming of cannon afar off, was indescribably grand, but it was the greatest public calamity which had befallen the province for ...
— The Philippine Islands • John Foreman
... But I list not to disparage His non-ability: The signal given Of Battel, when our enemies came on, (Directed more by fury, than by warrant Of Policy and Stratagem) I met them, I in the fore-front of the Armies met them; And as if this old weather-beaten body Had been compos'd of cannon-proof, I stood The volleys of their shot. I, I my self Was he that first dis-rankt their woods of Pikes: But when we came to handy-stroaks, as often As I lent blows, so often I gave wounds, And every wound a death. I may be bold To justifie a truth, this very ...
— The Laws of Candy - Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (3 of 10) • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher
... salary of nine hundred francs, almost a dwarf, and with no semblance of youth,—Jean Butscha made Modeste his idol, and would willingly have given his life for hers. The poor fellow, whose eyes were hollowed beneath their heavy lids like the touch-holes of a cannon, whose head overweighted his body, with its shock of crisp hair, and whose face was pock-marked, had lived under pitying eyes from the time he was seven years of age. Is not that enough to explain his whole being? ...
— Modeste Mignon • Honore de Balzac
... In another second or so Jan would sink down again to sleep. Bill did not snarl or growl. He needed no trumpet-call. He made no more sound than a cat makes in leaping for a bird. Yet he rushed upon the blinking, half-comatose Jan as though impelled thereto from the mouth of a spring cannon. ...
— Jan - A Dog and a Romance • A. J. Dawson
... friendly guide, and sending him back rejoicing with liberal largesse, I hurried as quickly as I could make my way along the ramparts, past the frowning, ancient cannon skirting the park, until I burst into the chateau at half past ...
— Jacqueline of Golden River • H. M. Egbert
... being no longer very young, I might have been on the verge of having a stroke; but she had left her dog in the porch, and my boy's dog, patrolling the field in front, had espied him from afar. He came on straight and swift like a cannon-ball, and the noise of the fight, which burst suddenly upon our ears, was more than enough to scare away a fit of apoplexy. We went out hastily and separated the gallant animals. Afterward I told the lady where she would find my wife—just round the corner, ...
— A Personal Record • Joseph Conrad
... Toulon effectually by blockade. But this was not the only reason. The plan of operations involved three distinct landings, and each would require at least two of the line, and perhaps three, "not only as protection, but as the means by which flat-boats must be manned, cannon landed, and the other necessary services of fatigue executed." Christian also required the necessary frigates and three or four brigs "to cover [that is, support] the operations of the smaller vessels [that is, the landing flotillas doing inshore work]." The main attack ...
— Some Principles of Maritime Strategy • Julian Stafford Corbett
... to us, as they can fire from the top of the cliffs right down on our decks, and, as we may probably be peppered pretty severely for the greater part of the way, it will not be altogether an amusing expedition, though we may get plenty 'of the bubble reputation, e'en at the cannon's mouth.' Anything, however, is better ...
— The Three Lieutenants • W.H.G. Kingston
... sick at one time. But at last the spring has come and Washington has now been nearly three years in service. Listen! The order has gone forth! At 10:30 o'clock comes the signal, and the firing of a cannon sees all men under arms! At 11:30 o'clock the second signal is given and the march begins. It is May 7, 1778, and Washington is assembling his men. Great news has come and it is fitting to return thanks to Divine Providence—so ...
— Boy Scouts Handbook - The First Edition, 1911 • Boy Scouts of America
... the site of a fort also bearing the same name—that of a director of the company. The new fort was a stone structure, having walls from ten to twelve feet high, and flanked by bastions defended by cannon and musketry. In 1867 the houses of the settlers occupied the banks of the Red River at short intervals for twenty-four miles. Many evidences of prosperity and thrift were seen throughout the settlement; the churches and school-houses proved that ...
— Canada • J. G. Bourinot
... even for the biggest fire-eaters of our lines. We had, however, to remember that so long as we held firm on the outer rim of our ruins would the enormous piles of brickwork which lie around, either in the form of ruined houses or wrecked compound walls, act as traverses and make the heavy rifle and cannon fire being poured in nothing very terrible. But as soon as we are forced to abandon our advanced lines the enemy speedily will swarm in, and then no sortie, however well planned, can dislodge him. He will make our best defences his parallels—and in a week he will be ...
— Indiscreet Letters From Peking • B. L. Putman Weale
... night and started right there and then to be a burglar. I went on tiptoe as softly as I could, and was right in the middle of the kitchen floor when I stumbled over a little stool and it made a noise. It was not much of a noise, but to me it seemed like the shot out of a cannon. I thought it would wake up the whole house, but nobody but mother woke, and she said, "Who's there?" I said nothing, only stood still and waited for her to fall asleep again. As I stood there a voice—and surely it was the voice ...
— Dave Ranney • Dave Ranney
... left it, I was forced to guess, and my conclusion was that the earl had gone off with his own, and that Gavin in a frenzy had followed them. My wisest course, I thought, was to let him sleep until I heard the cannon, when his struggle for a wife must end. Fifty times at least did I stand regarding him as he slept; and if I did not pity his plight sufficiently, you know the reason. What were Margaret's sufferings ...
— The Little Minister • J.M. Barrie
... which is close to the town. The hill was very steep and rocky. The rocks (like all the hills in Konkodoo) are a coarse reddish granite, composed of red feldspar, white quartz, and black shorl; but it differs from any granite I have seen, in having round smooth pebbles, many of them as large as a cannon shot. These pebbles, when broken, are granite, but of a paler colour and closer texture. The day was cool; but after fatiguing ourselves and resting six times, we found that we were only about half way to the top. We were surprised to find the hill cultivated to the very summits; and though ...
— The Journal Of A Mission To The Interior Of Africa, In The Year 1805 • Mungo Park
... could not be induced to listen to any concessions or entertain any proposition but complete surrender. He had, Mr. Morris wrote me, had a model of the island made, which he used to bombard with little cannon, to give vent to his rage. All the powers, with the exception of England, now advised the Porte to concede a principality. The English policy in this case has always seemed to me mistaken, and in questionable faith, for by the protocol of February 20, 1830, the signatory ...
— The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume II • William James Stillman
... dinner-party this evening," Mr. Weatherley continued, moving his umbrella from one hand to the other and speaking very rapidly, "bridge afterwards. We happen to be a man short. I was to have called at the club to try and pick up some one—find I sha'n't have time—meeting at the Cannon Street Hotel to attend. Would you—er—fill the vacant place? Save me ...
— The Lighted Way • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... only his creditors should take him off your hands! You would be thought such a clever fellow!—Do not go to Monsieur de Granville's room; wait for him in his Court with that formidable great gun. It is a loaded cannon turned on the three most important families of the Court and Peerage. Be bold: propose to Monsieur de Granville that he should relieve you of Jacques Collin by transferring him to La Force, where the convicts know how to deal with those ...
— Scenes from a Courtesan's Life • Honore de Balzac
... peasants gained the shelter when six pieces of cannon, that had been placed on the opposite slope while the fight was going on, opened ...
— No Surrender! - A Tale of the Rising in La Vendee • G. A. Henty
... Adrian, from the darkness among his fellow-captives, hear the familiar roar and crash of cannon fight, the hustling and the thud of leaping feet, the screams and oaths of battle, and, finally, the triumphant shouts of English throats, and he knew that the Frenchman was boarded. A last ringing British cheer told of the ...
— The Light of Scarthey • Egerton Castle
... a mighty power, As it echoes from shore to shore, And the fearless pen has more sway o'er men Than the murderous cannon's roar! What burst the chain far over the main, And brighten'd the captive's den? 'Twas the fearless pen and the voice of power, Hurrah! for the Voice and Pen! Hurrah! Hurrah! for ...
— Poems • Denis Florence MacCarthy
... to gunnery. Thampion (tampon, Fr., a bung, cork, or plug of wood) is now written tampion, and signifies the stopper with which the mouths of cannon are closed up, to prevent the admission of rain, or sea water, whereby their charges might be rendered incapable of service. A tewel (tuyau, or tuyal, Fr.) is a pipe; and is here used (for the sake of continuing ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume I. • R. Dodsley
... army came up with the rebels, about a mile above Lord President's house, in a muir called Drumrossie. They began the engagement first, by firing from a battery of six guns they had erected upon their right; but our cannon played so hott upon them, that they were obliged soon to fly, by which means we gote possession of their artillery, and so drove them before us for three miles of way. The cavalry gave them closs ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 187, May 28, 1853 • Various
... fire-escape. The thought of running the gauntlet of the smirking attendants, the possibility of meeting some of the exultant dramatic critics, most of whom were there to cut him to pieces, revolted him. Their joyous grins were harder to face than cannon, therefore he cowered in his place during the long wait, his mind awhirl, his ...
— The Light of the Star - A Novel • Hamlin Garland
... provisions for four months, in the castle, into which they retired, as Daniel entered the town. On the arrival of the governor, the place was completely invested; but, it being impossible to carry the castle without battering artillery, colonel Daniel was dispatched to Jamaica for cannon, bombs, and mortars. During his absence, two small Spanish vessels of war were seen off the mouth of the harbour; upon which the governor raised the siege, abandoned his transports, and made a precipitate retreat ...
— The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1 (of 5) • John Marshall
... offering itself for experiment, he turned it timidly, applying a match to a geometrical pattern of holes. He jumped back as from an exploding cannon. ...
— The Dust Flower • Basil King
... of the time Tom put the cannon cracker in the bonfire and made him think some dynamite had gone off," ...
— The Rover Boys in the Air - From College Campus to the Clouds • Edward Stratemeyer
... the golden city, even while Dr. Price and other English prisoners were engaged in the business of negotiation. Mrs. Judson had the pain of seeing their house without beautiful enclosure of fruits and flowers, entirely destroyed, to make a place for the erection of cannon. ...
— Lives of the Three Mrs. Judsons • Arabella W. Stuart
... horse rear. Marcilly was killed in bravely defending a post which I had charged him to intrench. He demanded succor from Rudolph Heister, who refused him, and who was deservedly killed as a punishment for his cowardice, by a cannon-ball which reached him behind his chevaux-de-frise. I arrived, accidentally at first, with a large escort; I sent for a large detachment; I halted, and completely beat the janizaries, leaving, indeed, five hundred men killed upon ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, v. 13 • Various
... that gentleman's pecuniary affairs since his death. At the time of the coup d'etat, being then a representative, he was imprisoned, and his wife showed considerable intrepidity in visiting him, walking on foot through the prison yard, amongst the soldiers sitting drunk on the cannon. At present Monsieur V. is engaged in his ...
— Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands V2 • Harriet Beecher Stowe
... Gilbert and Davis played out their high natures were of the kind which we call peaceful, and the enemies with which they contended were principally the ice and the wind, and the stormy seas and the dangers of unknown and savage lands; we shall close amidst the roar of cannon, and the wrath and rage of battle. Hume, who alludes to the engagement which we are going to describe, speaks of it in a tone which shows that he looked at it as something portentous and prodigious; as a thing to wonder at—but scarcely ...
— Froude's Essays in Literature and History - With Introduction by Hilaire Belloc • James Froude
... monks, in their turn, have fired occasionally upon the Bedouins, for they have a well furnished armory, and two small cannon, but they take great care never to kill any one. And though they dislike such turbulent neighbours, and describe them to strangers as very devils, yet they have sense enough to perceive the advantages which they derive from the better traits in the Bedouin character, such as their ...
— Travels in Syria and the Holy Land • John Burckhardt
... not one of unmixed satisfaction to me, because of course there is a great deal that is painful about this war, but on the whole the results have been successful. On Monday last (the 28th) I was awakened at 6 A.M. by a cannon-shot, which was the commencement of a bombardment of the city, which lasted for 27 hours. As the fire of the shipping was either not returned at all, or returned only by a very few shots, I confess that this proceeding gave me great pain at the time. But I find that much less ...
— Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin • James, Eighth Earl of Elgin
... Baden Baden, when the tables were open there, and, like most Englishmen, he never played whist that something was not staked; it gave zest to the game, which to him would be very insipid without it: but Bessie's eyes could have made him face the cannon's mouth, if need be, and he said ...
— Bessie's Fortune - A Novel • Mary J. Holmes
... but I never count it, and hope God won't." And these Christian nations which have been brought forward as the witnesses of the truth of the scriptures owe $25,000,000,000, which represents Christian war, Christian cannon, Christian shot, and Christian shell. The sum is so great that the imagination is dazed in its contemplation. That is the result of ...
— Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll, Volume I • Robert Green Ingersoll
... we ever saw, which we had the curiosity to measure, to measure about and fand it 18 large inches. The gourds are monstrous great heir: we have sein them greater then any cannon bullet ever we saw. We have eaten cormes[203] heir, which is a very poor fruit, tho the peasants makes a drink of it they call cormet. In Octobre is the tyme of their roots, as Riphets, tho they eat of them al ...
— Publications of the Scottish History Society, Vol. 36 • Sir John Lauder
... of November 5 broke clear and cold. The old town of Lustadt was awakened with a start at daybreak by the booming of cannon. Mounted messengers galloped hither and thither through the steep, winding streets. Troops, foot and horse, moved at the double from the barracks along the King's Road to the fortifications which guard the entrance to the city at the foot ...
— The Mad King • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... march i'th' mouth o'th' Cannon, but adiew, if she be above ground, go, away to your prayers, away I say, away, she shall be spoken ...
— Wit Without Money - The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher • Francis Beaumont
... grinding sound set the black fog vibrating. Then a brief clamor of panic-stricken voices rang in to the shore. Silence followed that—a silence that was suddenly broken by the thumping report of a cannon. The light ...
— The Harbor Master • Theodore Goodridge Roberts
... intelligible ideas, even of those which exist in human capacities. For though sensible objects may be the destined medium to awaken the dormant energies of man's understanding, yet are those energies themselves no more contained, in sense, than the explosion of a cannon, in the spark which gave it fire. In short, all minds that are, are similar and congenial; and so too are their ideas, or intelligible forms. Were it otherwise, there could be no intercourse between man and man, or (what is more ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown
... or to imitate a Dutch milk-maid going to market with pails on its shoulders, or to appear as a soldier, keeping guard as sentinel. One was once trained to act as a cannoneer with a cap on its head, a firelock on its shoulder, and a match in its claw; it would then discharge a small cannon. "The same bird also acted as if it had been wounded. It was wheeled in a barrow, to convey it, as it were, to the hospital; after which it flew away before the company." Another turned a kind of windmill; another stood in the midst of some fireworks, which ...
— Country Walks of a Naturalist with His Children • W. Houghton
... planted in every conceivable point of vantage from a camouflaged bush on the hillside to the concealed "lookout" in the tallest treetop. Cannon of every caliber had been placed throughout the woods and under the lea of each protecting hill or cliff. A system of narrow-gauge railroads sent its spurs into every part of the Forest, delivering ammunition to the ...
— The Fight for the Argonne - Personal Experiences of a 'Y' Man • William Benjamin West
... was very simple, she was absolutely simple, they repeated one after the other. And they all in the same words added: "Yes, she was simple, save in deeds of war, wherein she was well skilled."[2729] Then the captains said how clever she was in placing cannon, albeit they knew well to the contrary. But how could she have failed to be well versed in deeds of war, since God himself led her against the English? And in this possession of the art of war by an unskilled girl lay ...
— The Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 (of 2) • Anatole France
... which Dickens led us, and the staircase where the convict stumbled up in the dark, and the chimney nearest the river where, although less exposed than in "Pip's" days, we could well understand how "the wind shook the house that night like discharges of cannon, or breakings of a sea." We looked in at the dark old staircase, so dark on that night when "the lamps were blown out, and the lamps on the bridges and the shore were shuddering," then went on to take ...
— Yesterdays with Authors • James T. Fields
... stop drawing to blow the wind out. When this happens, the animal, finding itself released from the drawing force, instantly sets off at full speed. Vain effort! The serpent has no sooner discharged the accumulated wind with a report like a cannon——" ...
— The Purple Land • W. H. Hudson
... State commission. The governor appointed as his assistants Hon. H.L. Shurtliff, Ogden; Hon. Willis Johnson, Salt Lake City; and the board elected S.T. Whitaker, of Salt Lake City, as director-general and John T. Cannon ...
— Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission • Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission
... to place our sea port towns out of the danger of insult. Measures have been already taken for furnishing them with heavy cannon for the service of such land batteries as may make a part of their defense against armed vessels approaching them. In aid of these it is desirable we should have a competent number of gun boats, and the number, to be competent, must be considerable. If immediately begun, they may be ...
— State of the Union Addresses of Thomas Jefferson • Thomas Jefferson
... the wildest rumors reached Paris that the Versailles government intended to put down the discontents by weight of sword. Armies were advancing on the city, 'twas averred—cannon and arms were being parked in the commanding squares; the King's faithful Allemands and Swiss were about to attack the representatives of the people ...
— Orphans of the Storm • Henry MacMahon
... soldier's close personal attention and make him oblivious to matters transpiring beyond his immediate neighborhood. Moreover, his sense of hearing is well-nigh overcome by the deafening uproar going on around him. The incessant and terrible crash of musketry, the roar of the cannon, the continual zip, zip, of the bullets as they hiss by him, interspersed with the agonizing screams of the wounded, or the death shrieks of comrades falling in dying convulsions right in the face of the living,—these things are not conducive to that serene and judicial mental ...
— The Story of a Common Soldier of Army Life in the Civil War, 1861-1865 • Leander Stillwell
... Then were the four walls of the room (which contained four beds) made witnesses to a scene exhibiting all the horrors of war. Dreadful was the conflict: bolsters and carpet-bags were wielded with fierce animosity; pillows and rolled-up blankets flew about the room like cannon-shot; and long was the contest doubtful, until the despair of the besieged at length overcame the impetuosity of the assailants, and succeeded in driving them from ...
— The Bushman - Life in a New Country • Edward Wilson Landor
... species of insult and derision. La Fayette was powerless. He was borne along resistlessly by this whirlwind of human passions. None were so malignant, so ferocious, so merciless, as the degraded women who mingled with the throng. They bestrode the cannon singing the most indecent and insulting songs. "We shall now have bread," they exclaimed; "for we have with us the baker, and the baker's wife, and the baker's boy." During seven long hours of agony were the royal family exposed to these insults, before ...
— Maria Antoinette - Makers of History • John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
... a flash the young fellow answered: "Before a cannon-ball cuts me in two, Commandant, I should like to go to Provence and help once more to lay the yule-log in my own home. Let ...
— The Christmas Kalends of Provence - And Some Other Provencal Festivals • Thomas A. Janvier
... Russians, but failed to bring on a battle, while they themselves suffered from an incessant downpour of rain which made the roads well-nigh impassable. The commissariat train broke down, and a hundred pieces of cannon and 5000 ammunition waggons had to be abandoned. The rain, and a bitterly cold wind that accompanied it, brought on an epidemic among the horses, which were forced to depend solely upon the green rye growing in the fields. Several thousands died; the troops ...
— Through Russian Snows - A Story of Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow • G. A Henty
... Magazine represents the Goddess of Liberty, with a pole and a liberty-cap, holding a shield with the Pennsylvania arms. On the right of the figure is a mortar inscribed "The Congress." In the foreground is a plan of fortifications with cannon balls. In the background are cannon with battle-axes and pikes. A gorget with "Liberty" upon it is hanging on a tree, and beneath it ...
— The Philadelphia Magazines and their Contributors 1741-1850 • Albert Smyth
... 2 o'clock the crowds waited expectantly. Shortly after 2 o'clock the booming of cannon and later the sound of military music conveyed to the people of Brussels the intimation that the triumphant march of the enemy on the ancient city ...
— The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol 1, Issue 4, January 23, 1915 • Various |
