Cecil Weatherly

“ In Vauban’s works, and those of most other engineers, there was generally a postern giving access to the floor of the main ditch, in the centre of the curtain escarp. The gates of Vauban’s and later fortresses are strong heavy wooden doors, and the gateways more or less ornamental archways, exactly as in many private mansions of castellar form. In modern fortresses the gate of a detached fort or an enceinte de sureté is intended purely as a defence against an unexpected rush. ”

“ From the interior of the ravelin it passed across the main ditch to a gate in the curtain of the enceinte. The road was in fact artificially made to wind in such a way that it was kept under fire from the defences throughout, while the part of it inside the works was bent so as to place a covering mass between the enemy’s fire and troops using the road for a sortie. Thus the gate itself was merely a barrier against a coup de main and to keep out unauthorized persons. ”

“ The more elaborate the gate defences the greater was the inducement for the besieger to attack the walls, and improvements in methods of siegecraft ultimately compelled the defender to develop the enceinte from its medieval form of a ring wall with flanking towers to the 17th century form of bastions, curtains, tenailles and ravelins, all intimately connected in one general scheme of defence. ”

“ The gates of heaven and hell, the gates of death and darkness, the wide and narrow gates that lead to destruction and life (Matt. vii. 13 and 14) , are familiar metaphorical phrases in the Bible. In Greek and Roman legend dreams pass through gates of transparent horn if true, if deceptive and false through opaque gates of ivory (Hom. Od. xix. 560 sq.; Virg. Aen. vi. 893) . (C. We.) ”