( 320 )

The sketch, see Frontispiece, is better calculatedthan the working plans, fig. 5 and 6, to give ajust conception of the beauty and merits of thisdesign, and the magnitude of the undertaking.The broken arch left void, between its shatteredbuttresses, a precipitous chasm 140 feet deep.Across this abyss, the slender material spreadgracefully, but securely. A work so slight andtemporary, contrasted strangely with a massivestructure which had stood for ages; but thehappy expedient made good, in a few hours,a way over ruins of vast account; and formedan auspicious opening to the important scenesthat were now about to be acted, on the greattheatre of war.

Santa Cruz, in his Reflexions Militaires, men-tions a method of getting artillery over rivers,by slinging the carriages to blocks running uponcables, stretched across from hank to hank.This expedient may be useful: the horses maybe swum over,* and the carriages, ammunition,&c. crossed in the foregoing manner, when thereare no means at hand, to make a better commu-nication. If the horses be crossed first, they

Madrid, and transported to Almaraz, where it was laid acrossa gap 143 feet wide, in the stone bridge across the Tagus there.

* Section IV. p. 205.