194

THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP.LX VIII.

prepared ; and at the end of three months, Ur-ban produced a piece of brass ordnance of stu-pendous, and almost incredible magnitude: ameasure of twelve palms is assigned to the bore;and the stone bullet weighed above six hundredpounds.* A vacant place before the new palacewas chosen for the first experiment; but to pre-vent the sudden and mischievous effects of asto-nishment and fear, a proclamation was issued,that the cannon would be' discharged the ensu-ing day. The explosion was felt or heard in acircuit of an hundred furlongs; the ball, by theforce of gunpowder, was driven above a mile;and on the spot where it fell, it buried itself afathom deep in the ground. For the convey-ance of this destructive engine, a frame or car-riage of thirty waggons was linked together, anddrawn along by a team of sixty oxen: two hun-dred men on both sides were stationed to poiseor support the rolling weight; two hundred andfifty workmen marched before to smooth the wayand repair the bridges; and near two monthswere employed in a laborious journey of onehundred and fifty miles. A lively philosopher 11derides on this occasion the credulity of theGreeks, and observes, with much reason, that we

4 The Attic talent weighed about sixty rainae, or avoirdupois pounds(see Hooper on Ancient Weights, Measures, &c.) j but among the mo-dern Greeks, that classic appellation was extended to a weight of onehundred, or one hundred and twenty-five pounds (Ducange TaXavrof).Leonardos Chiensis measured the ball or stone of the second cannon:Lapidem, qni palmis nnrieiim ex meis ambibat in gyro.

b See Voltaire (Hist. Generate, c. xci, p. 294, 295). He was ambi-tious of universal monarchy •, and the poet frequently aspires to thename and style of an astronomer, a chemist, &c.