and Henry IV.

In 1636 and several succeeding years the inhabitants of Paris owed their safety to its walls.

If this capital had been strongly fortified in 1814 and 1815, the allied armies would not have dared to attempt its investment.
But it is deemed unnecessary to further specify examples; the whole history of modern warfare is one continued proof of the importance of fortifications as a means of national defence, and as an auxiliary in offensive military operations.

Our illustrations have been mostly drawn from European wars, but our own brief history, as will be shown hereafter, is not without its proofs.
The use and importance of field-fortifications, intrenched camps, &c., as well as the class of military works called coast-defences, will be discussed hereafter.[6] [Footnote 6: The use of fortifications in the defence of states is discussed by Ternay, Vauban, Cormontaigne, Napoleon, the Archduke Charles, Jomini, Fallot, and, incidentally, by most of the military historians of the wars of the French Revolution.

The names of such standard works as give the detailed arrangements of fortifications will be mentioned hereafter.].