Here are the plans that I have roughly prepared. Beyond the moat I
would erect at the centre of each of the three sides a strong work,
similar to that across the drawbridge, and the latter I would also have
strengthened.
"These works, you see, are open on the side of the moat, so that if
carried they would offer the assailants no shelter from arrows from the
walls, while being triangular in shape they would be flanked by our fire.
Each of these three forts should have a light drawbridge running across
the moat to the foot of the wall, thence a ladder should lead to an
entrance to be pierced through the wall, some fifteen feet above the level
of the moat; by this means the garrison could, if assailed by an
overwhelming force, withdraw into the castle. These outposts would render
it--so long as they were held--impossible for storming-parties to cross
the moat and place ladders, as they did on the last occasion. The first
task will, of course, be to quarry stones. As soon as sufficient are
prepared for one of these outworks you should proceed to erect it, as it
would render one side at least unassailable and diminish the circuit to be
defended. As soon as one is finished, with its drawbridge, ladder, and
entrance, proceed with the next. I would build the one at the rear first.
As you see from this plan, the two walls are to be twenty feet high and
each ten yards long, so that they could be defended by some twenty men.
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