"Besiege" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... all that has been done during the past year; but those of us who have been active in this movement, have been so occupied in doing the work, that no one has found time to chronicle the progress of events. With but half a dozen live men and women, to canvass the State of New York, to besiege the Legislature and the delegates to the Constitutional Convention with tracts and petitions, to write letters and send documents to every State Legislature that has moved on this question, to urge Congress ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage
... shame? A thing to spit on, to despise and scorn?— And then to ask me! You, by whom was torn And then cast by, like some vile rag, my name! What shelter could you give me, now, that blame And loathing would not share? that wolves of vice Would not besiege with eyes of glaring ice? Wherein Sin sat not with her face of flame? "You love me"?—God!—If yours be love, for lust Hell must invent another synonym! If yours be love, then hatred is the way To Heaven and God! and not with soul but dust Must ...
— Weeds by the Wall - Verses • Madison J. Cawein
... by us. I turned round and fired, but having to cling to the tree, I had great difficulty in taking aim. The effect of the report was to bring the whole herd to a halt, and, facing round, they confronted us in one dark and formidable phalanx, as if they had resolved to besiege us in our tree. I remembered the way you, Andrew, had been caught by the elephant, and I fancied that the buffaloes were about to treat us in the same manner. One or two buffaloes might have been disposed of, but we had not ammunition sufficient to kill ...
— In the Wilds of Africa • W.H.G. Kingston
... men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber. A man who has enough to live on, if he knew how to stay with pleasure at home, would not leave it to go to sea or to besiege a town. A commission in the army would not be bought so dearly, but that it is found insufferable not to budge from the town; and men only seek conversation and entering games, because they cannot remain ...
— Pascal's Pensees • Blaise Pascal
... On discovering that she had locked herself up in the strong palace, their rage knew no bounds. They made a dozen different attempts to break open the palace door, but all in vain. Finally, they decided to besiege the fortress. ...
— The Firelight Fairy Book • Henry Beston
... is no need to say that Harry was a special favorite with ladies; in truth, it was a confessed fact among his acquaintances, that, whereas dozens of creditable, respectable, well-to-do young men might besiege female hearts with every proper formality, waiting at the gates and watching at the posts of the doors in vain, yet before him all gates and passages seemed to fly open of their own accord. Nevertheless, ...
— The May Flower, and Miscellaneous Writings • Harriet Beecher Stowe
... the next morning) was set up; but they had come to the end of their string, and there were various horrid gaps yet to fill in spite of a too generous spreading of advertisements. Bud Tipworthy had been sent out to besiege Miss Tibbs, all of whose recent buds of rhyme had been hot-housed into inky blossom during the week, and after a long absence the youth returned with a somewhat abrupt quatrain, entitled "The Parisians of Old," ...
— The Gentleman From Indiana • Booth Tarkington
... of 1759 Wolfe was appointed to command the army destined to besiege Quebec. He immediately submitted Carleton's name for appointment as quartermaster-general. Pitt and Ligonier heartily approved. But the king again refused. Ligonier went back a second time to no purpose. Pitt then sent him in for the third time, saying, in a tone meant for the king to ...
— The Father of British Canada: A Chronicle of Carleton • William Wood
... 15:33 And from the land of the Assyrians shall the enemy besiege them, and consume some of them, and in their host shall be fear and dread, and ...
— Deuteronomical Books of the Bible - Apocrypha • Anonymous
... the sea coast near Peterhead. That such a step was attended by great peril they well knew, for the Comyns would gather the whole strength of the Highlands, with accessions from the English garrisons, and besiege them there. The king's health, however, was a paramount consideration; were he to die, the blow might be fatal to Scotland, accordingly the little force marched eastward. They reached Slaines without ...
— In Freedom's Cause • G. A. Henty
... sword in his hand and joy in his heart until he is dropped. If he dies, he dies like a gentleman. If he lives, he writes Home that he has been "potted," "sniped," "chipped," or "cut over," and sits down to besiege Government for a wound- gratuity until the next little war breaks out, when he perjures himself before a Medical Board, blarneys his Colonel, burns incense round his Adjutant, and is allowed to go ...
— This is "Part II" of Soldiers Three, we don't have "Part I" • Rudyard Kipling
... getting through this long, dull afternoon, my dears? Quiet as mice till just now. What woke you up? A battle of the books? Alice looks as if she had laid in plenty of ammunition, and you were preparing to besiege her." ...
— A Garland for Girls • Louisa May Alcott
... who came to Newcastle a few years after the Scotsmen had departed, regard the beauty of St. Nicholas or its Tower. They came also desiring to besiege the town, though with only spiritual weapons. The Church to them was but a 'steeple-house,' and the Tower akin to an idol. Thus slowly do men learn that 'the ways unto God are as the number of the souls of the children of men,' ...
— A Book of Quaker Saints • Lucy Violet Hodgkin
... knew it was no mere escort or parade duty that was in question, and began to think there was work of some kind on hand. This gave me no kind of uneasiness. I only wondered whatever it could be, for there was clearly a mystery of some kind or other. Were we going to besiege Paddy, in his own peaceable city of Cork? Had some of the peep-o'-day boys been burning down farmer Magrath's ricks again? or was there a private still to be routed out and demolished? ...
— Willis the Pilot • Paul Adrien
... couldn't be so cruel as to refuse us," said Miriam cheerfully. "Let's besiege her fortress ...
— Grace Harlowe's First Year at Overton College • Jessie Graham Flower
... more get belief in me. Is this his journey to Rome and to the Holy Land? are these the fruits of his mail, his staff, and other ornaments becoming a devout pilgrim? Well, he shall find the reward of his treason. I will besiege Malepardus instantly, and destroy Reynard and his generation from the earth ...
— The Comical Creatures from Wurtemberg - Second Edition • Unknown
... besieging a city called Ibera, from its contiguity to the river, which was at that time the wealthiest in that quarter. When Hasdrubal perceived this, instead of carrying assistance to his allies, he proceeded himself to besiege a city which had lately placed itself under the protection of the Romans; and thus the siege which was now commenced was given up by them, and the operations of the war ...
— The History of Rome; Books Nine to Twenty-Six • Titus Livius
... the golden age of equality, before private property was known, when all men held in common the goods of the earth, and robber kings were evils of the future. The god of Love and his barons, with the hypocrite monk Faux-Semblant—a bitter satirist of the mendicant orders—besiege the tower in which Bel-Accueil is imprisoned, and by force and fraud an entrance is effected. The old beldame, who watches over the captive, is corrupted by promises and gifts, and frankly exposes her own iniquities and ...
— A History of French Literature - Short Histories of the Literatures of the World: II. • Edward Dowden
... the heart of Germany, and ruining the Kaiser there. But first he needs, and the Kaiser is aware of it, a "basis on the Rhine;" free bridge over the Rhine, not by Strasburg and Kehl alone: and for this reason, he will have to besiege and capture Philipsburg first of all. Strong Town of Philipsburg, well down towards Speyer-and-Heidelberg quarter on the German side of the Rhine: [See map] here will be our bridge. Lorraine is already occupied, since the first day of the War; Trarbach, strong-place of the Moselle and ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. IX. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle
... Marsile. If he agrees to become my vassal, and to receive Holy Baptism, I will give him half of Spain as a fief. The other half will be held by Roland, my nephew. If these terms do not please King Marsile, I will myself besiege Saragossa, and will take him and bind him in chains. Then he shall be brought to Aix, where he shall be put to a shameful death. So take this letter which is sealed with my seal, and give it into the hand of the Infidel.' When Ganelon had put the letter in safety, the King held out to him his ...
— The Book of Romance • Various
... boot a compromising letter, declaring Virginio a party to the crime, and asserting that Lodovico had with his own poignard killed their victim. Padua placed itself in a state of defense, and prepared to besiege the palace of Prince Lodovico, who also got himself in readiness for battle. Engines, culverins, and fire-brands were directed against the barricades which he had raised. The militia was called out and the Brenta was strongly ...
— Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 1 and 2 - The Catholic Reaction • John Addington Symonds
... inwardly were moved, But never made an outward change of place; Not so the mountain-giants—(as behoved A more alert and locomotive race), Hearing a clatter which they disapproved, They ran straight forward to besiege the place With a discordant universal yell, Like house-dogs howling at a dinner-bell. J. H. FRERE, The ...
— The Principles of English Versification • Paull Franklin Baum
... nuptial ties He breaks, and soon another bride supplies.— But if you wish to see the bosom (war Of Jealousy and Love) in deadly jar, Behold that royal Jew! the dire control Of Love and Hate by turns besiege his soul. Now Vengeance wins the day—the deed is done! And now, in fell remorse, he hates the sun, And calls his consort from the realms of night, To which his fatal hand had sped her flight— Behold yon hapless three, by passion ...
— The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch • Petrarch
... promised by the administration a very much larger force, or claimed that he had, and he was a man of veracity. Twelve thousand was a very small army with which to penetrate two hundred and sixty miles into an enemy's country, and to besiege the capital; a city, at that time, of largely over one hundred thousand inhabitants. Then, too, any line of march that could be selected led through mountain passes easily defended. In fact, there were at that time but two roads from Vera Cruz to the City ...
— Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete • Ulysses S. Grant
... welcome, ere I bid you go; For you, my lord, the queen and Winchester Shall march to Hertford. Sweet Isabel, And if thou love me, play the amazon. Matilda, that hath long bewitch'd mine eye, Is, as I hear by spials, now in Hertford Castle: Besiege her there; for now her haughty father Ruffians it up and down, and all the brood Of viperous traitors whet their poison'd teeth, That they may feed on us that foster them. Go forward, and go with you victory! Which to assure my powers shall ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VIII (4th edition) • Various
... cruelty of the bailiffs, entered a boat and were overwhelmed in the rush of the river. And one night men of the castle, maliciously seeking occasion against the commonalty of the town, went out of the castle and pretended to besiege it and shot arrows at it; and then secretly re-entered the castle and declared the townsfolk had been attacking the castle. And on this account many burgesses were imprisoned in the castle and ill-treated, and their swine maliciously killed. ...
— Mediaeval Wales - Chiefly in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries: Six Popular Lectures • A. G. Little
... while the Israelites did this, and the Canaanites did not attack them, but kept themselves quiet within their own walls, Joshua resolved to besiege them; so on the first day of the feast [of the passover], the priests carried the ark round about, with some part of the armed men to be a guard to it. These priests went forward, blowing with their seven trumpets; and exhorted the army to be of good courage, ...
— The Antiquities of the Jews • Flavius Josephus
... Caesar from his Roman grave To hear war beautified by her discourse. Wisdom is foolishness, but in her tongue; Beauty a slander, but in her fair face; There is no summer but in her cheerful looks, Nor frosty winter but in her disdain. I cannot blame the Scots that did besiege her, For she is all the treasure of our land; But call them cowards that they ran away, Having so rich and ...
— A Study of Shakespeare • Algernon Charles Swinburne
... it cannot be; and yet my heart Will not confess he owes the malady That doth my life besiege. Farewell, young lords; Whether I live or die, be you the sons Of worthy Frenchmen; let higher Italy,— Those bated that inherit but the fall Of the last monarchy,—see that you come Not to woo honour, but to wed it; when The bravest questant shrinks, ...
— All's Well That Ends Well • William Shakespeare [Collins edition]
... that my bed of death From bands of greedy heirs be free; For these besiege the latest breath Of fortune's ...
— Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold • Matthew Arnold
... the life o' public haunts; But thee, what were our fairs and rants? Ev'n godly meetings o' the saunts, By thee inspired, When gaping they besiege the tents, Are ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns
... entered the territory of the Romans committing devastations; the solicitude about which wars increasing, Kaeso Fabius and Sp. Fusius are created consuls. The AEqui were laying siege to Ortona, a Latin city. The Veientes, now satiated with plunder, threatened that they would besiege Rome itself. Which terrors, when they ought to assuage, increased still further the bad feelings of the commons: and the custom of declining the military service was now returning, not of their own accord; but Sp. ...
— The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 • Titus Livius
... Applicants continued to besiege us wherever we stopped on our way across the continent and in San Francisco until we embarked on the afternoon of March 28 on the S.S. Tenyo ...
— Camps and Trails in China - A Narrative of Exploration, Adventure, and Sport in Little-Known China • Roy Chapman Andrews and Yvette Borup Andrews
... Genghis Khan sent his son Jughi with a large detachment to besiege and take a certain town named Saganak. As soon as Jughi arrived before the place, he sent in a flag of truce to call upon the people of the town to surrender, promising, at the same time, to treat them kindly if they ...
— Genghis Khan, Makers of History Series • Jacob Abbott
... of Dunkirk had for many years been a nest of pirates, who preyed upon Dutch commerce in the narrow seas. The States-General, urged on by Oldenbarneveldt, resolved in the spring of 1606 to despatch an expedition to besiege and capture Dunkirk. Both Maurice and William Lewis were opposed to the project, which they regarded as rash and risky. The States-General, however, hearing reports of the archduke's soldiery being mutinous ...
— History of Holland • George Edmundson
... various ways the various purchasers That sally forth with this protecting spell, Employ the privilege this grant confers: Some, like myself, their lawyer's citadel Besiege, his speed long striving to impel; To take a dinner with a friend some go; In fashion's haunts some for an hour to swell; Some strive, what creditors intend, to know; And some the moments ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan
... the naval section bears away the palm. It is for the most part composed of the elder boys and of a few girls who would be boys if they could. Its members all possess a hopeless passion for the sea, and besiege their mothers for promises that their future life shall be that of middies. They wear straw hats and loose blue shirts, and affect as much of the sailor in their costume as they can. Each has a boat, or as they ...
— Stray Studies from England and Italy • John Richard Green
... from the generals' point of view, but not from hers? Because her plan was to raise the siege immediately, by fighting, while theirs was to besiege the besiegers and starve them out by closing their communications—a plan which would ...
— Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc - Volume 1 (of 2) • Mark Twain
... soldiers to look after the mob which will besiege the gallery, but as for the rest of the house . . ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
... fallen than the admiral determined to besiege Calvi, the one French stronghold left in the island. The news came, however, that a part of the French fleet had broken out of Toulon, and Lord Hood at once started in pursuit, leaving Nelson to ...
— By Conduct and Courage • G. A. Henty
... of Dumourier, to stir up the inhabitants of Liege, Belgium, and Holland. 2. Carra denounces the farmers-general. Deputy Rhul moves, that the property of foreign princes be put up to sale. 3. The French raise the siege of Maestricht, and besiege Williamstadt without success. They 4. are beaten at Tongres by the Prussians. Gertruydenberg surrenders to Gen. Dumourier. Zurich, Bern, and other Swiss cantons acknowledge the French republic. Manuel accuses ...
— Historical Epochs of the French Revolution • H. Goudemetz
... your capacity, Strength and sagacity, Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity, If neither cold poverty, famished and gaunt, Nor sickness nor pain Of body or brain Can turn you away from the thing that you want, If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it, ...
— It Can Be Done - Poems of Inspiration • Joseph Morris
... think that there was no variety to our lives in these early days, that we did nothing but resolve, complain, petition, protest, hold conventions, and besiege Legislatures, we record now and then some cheerful item from the Metropolitan papers concerning some ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage
... when Dionysius came back to the city, he found the harbor blocked by a great chain stretched across it to prevent the entrance of any ship; and he was forced to retreat into the citadel, where the angry Syr-a-cus'ans came to besiege him. ...
— The Story of the Greeks • H. A. Guerber
... William now wrote to Heinsius that the worst was over. "The crisis," he said, "has been a terrible one. Thank God that it has ended thus." He did not, however, think it prudent to try at that time the event of another pitched field. He therefore suffered the French to besiege and take Charleroy; and this was the only advantage which they derived from the most sanguinary battle fought in ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 4 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... Romans, while south of that range of mountains the inhabitants had in every case shown themselves bitterly hostile. Everywhere on the approach of the Carthaginians they had retired to their walled towns, which Hannibal had neither the time nor the necessary machines to besiege. ...
— The Young Carthaginian - A Story of The Times of Hannibal • G.A. Henty
... to Saint Simeon's Harbour, which was the port of Antioch, and saw the mighty walls and towers on the heights a dozen miles inshore; and when Gilbert looked from the deck of his ship, he was glad that the army was not to besiege that great and strong fortress, since it belonged to Count Raymond, the Queen's uncle. But if he had known what things were to happen to him there, rather than have ridden up to the walled city he would have gone barefoot to Jerusalem, to fulfil his ...
— Via Crucis • F. Marion Crawford
... many millions of men to perish; which unceasingly depopulate the earth, and desolate the world we inhabit? Is there any one who has sufficient compass of comprehension to ascertain the advantages that result from the evils that besiege us on all sides? Do we not daily witness beings consecrated to misfortune, from the moment they quitted the womb of the parent who brought them into existence, until that which re-committed them to the earth, to sleep in peace with their fathers; who ...
— The System of Nature, Vol. 2 • Baron D'Holbach
... besiege the Castle?' said Talbot, smiling sarcastically. 'Well, unless my old commander, General Preston, turn false metal, or the Castle sink into the North Loch, events which I deem equally probable, I think we shall have some time to make up our acquaintance. I have ...
— Waverley • Sir Walter Scott
... too much addicted to the pleasures of the table, was giving himself up one day to the immoderate enjoyment of a sumptuous feast, when his Vizier came to inform him that the enemy was coming to besiege his capital. ...
— Eastern Tales by Many Story Tellers • Various
... been pretty tolerably tried! The Minister knows very well he could move the Monument sooner than me. I love the people; and am half mad to see that they have no love for themselves. Why do not they meet? Why do not they petition? Why do not they besiege the throne with their clamors? They are no better than beasts of burthen! If they were any thing else, the whole kingdom would rise, as one man, and drive this arrogant upstart from the helm. I say, Mr. Evelyn, I love the people; ...
— The Adventures of Hugh Trevor • Thomas Holcroft
... a yet breathing and existing city, which Assyrian monarchs came down to besiege, which the chariots of Pharaohs encompassed, which Roman Emperors have personally assailed, for which Saladin and Coeur de Lion, the desert and Christendom, Asia and Europe, struggled in rival chivalry; a city which Mahomet sighed to rule, and over which the Creator alike of Assyrian kings and ...
— Tancred - Or, The New Crusade • Benjamin Disraeli
... That have not pass'd the centre's latitude,) As pilgrims travel to our hemisphere, Only to gaze upon Zenocrate. Thou shalt not beautify Larissa-plains, But keep within the circle of mine arms: At every town and castle I besiege, Thou shalt be set upon my royal tent; And, when I meet an army in the field, Those [109] looks will shed such influence in my camp, As if Bellona, goddess of the war, Threw naked swords and sulphur-balls of fire Upon the heads of all our enemies.— ...
— Tamburlaine the Great, Part II. • Christopher Marlowe
... fight stoutly shoulder to shoulder, but they have an over-weening conceit in themselves, and deem that all that is necessary in war is to carry a pike or a pole-axe and use it stoutly. A party of children would do as well, or better, were they set to besiege a town. Leadership there is none. Parties go out to skirmish with the garrison; a few lives are lost, and then they return, well content with themselves. ...
— A March on London • G. A. Henty
... Rivers), half-clad, gypsy-looking women and young, nut-brown girls besiege the passengers to partake of fresh pulque, which they serve in small earthen mugs. Two stout engines are required to draw us over the steep grade. The highest point reached is at Cima (The Summit) twenty-four miles from ...
— Aztec Land • Maturin M. Ballou
... are greatly plagued by sacrilegious Monsters in human form, who care for naught Save with incessant papers to besiege us, E'en to the solemn hour of silent thought; They draw no line; the frightful joy of giving Pain is their guerdon; but for Thee alone, Life would be hardly worth the bore of living, No one could call ...
— Rhymes of the East and Re-collected Verses • John Kendall (AKA Dum-Dum)
... during which time something of great importance happened at Palermo. On the 4th of April the authorities became aware that arms and conspirators were concealed in the convent of La Gancia, which was to have been the focus of the revolution. Troops were sent to besiege the convent, which they only succeeded in taking after four hours' resistance; its fall was the signal for a general slaughter of the inmates, both monks and laymen. The insurrection was thus stifled in its birth in the capital, but from this time it began ...
— The Liberation of Italy • Countess Evelyn Martinengo-Cesaresco
... Mongolia many hundreds of miles to the West. Allying himself by marriage with Mongols, the Manchu monarch began a series of grand raids through their territory in the direction of Peking. Once he actually reached Peking and sat down in front of its mighty walls to besiege it. But he found his strength unequal to the task, and once more was forced to retire. Then this second Manchu prince died, and was succeeded by a tiny grandson of five. The regent appointed by the Manchu nobles owed his final success to the fact that he was called in by the Chinese generals ...
— Indiscreet Letters From Peking • B. L. Putman Weale
... claim protection. The majesty of the consuls was insufficient to preserve order, and while the discord was rapidly increasing, horsemen rushed into the gates announcing that an enemy was actually upon them, marching to besiege the city. The plebeians saw that their opportunity had arrived, and when proud Appius Claudius called upon them to enroll their names for the war, they refused the summons, saying that the patricians might fight their own battles; that for themselves it was better to perish together ...
— The Story of Rome From the Earliest Times to the End of the Republic • Arthur Gilman
... way—that heritage shall be safe' from him! It is you and me, monsieur! You can laugh! The war is open', and by me! There is one great step taken: until to-night there was nothing for you to ruin, to-morrow you have got a noble of France—your own protege—to besiege and sack. And you are to lose, because you think such ruin easy, and because you understand nothing—far less—of divinity. How could you know? You have not the fiber; the heart of a lady is a blank to you; ...
— Monsieur Beaucaire • Booth Tarkington
... with his life, in a tempest which overtook the fleet in the Mediterranean, but landed in Sardinia, and after recruiting here again set sail, and anchored off Carthage. He met with opposition, instead of welcome, from the inhabitants of the coast, and was obliged to besiege Tunis. The excessive heat of the climate and the unhealthiness of the soil proved a second time fatal to the army. Plague at last broke out, and Louis was himself seized. Finding himself dying, he sent for Philip, his eldest son and successor. Placing in his ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8 • Various
... you had been my brother, I could not have done more for you," retorted Lousteau, somewhat nettled, "but I won't answer for Finot. Scores of sharp fellows will besiege Finot for the next two days with offers to work for low pay. I have promised for you, but you can draw back if you like.—You little know how lucky you are," he added after a pause. "All those in our set combine to attack an enemy in various papers, and lend ...
— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac
... offered by me, an inexperienced, trembling girl, driven to it by mere desperation! So it has gone to Dr. Cabot, who will not use it for himself, I am sure, but will be delighted to have it to give to poor people, who really besiege him. The last time he called to see her he talked and prayed with her, and says she seemed pleased and grateful, and promised to be more regular at church, which she had been, ...
— Stepping Heavenward • Mrs. E. Prentiss
... of a retreat, Mr. Marlow, puts me in mind of the Duke of Marlborough, when we went to besiege Denain. He ...
— She Stoops to Conquer - or, The Mistakes of a Night. A Comedy. • Oliver Goldsmith
... the place, and retired to Carrickfergus, some ten miles from Belfast, on the north coast of the Lough. Carrickfergus was a fortified town. The castle occupies a strong position on a rock overlooking the Lough. The place formed a depot for James's troops, and Schomberg therefore determined to besiege the fortress. ...
— The Huguenots in France • Samuel Smiles
... Earth forced on a soul's use while seeing heaven: The man is witless of the size, the sum, The value in proportion of all things, Or whether it be little or be much. Discourse to him of prodigious armaments Assembled to besiege his city now, And of the passing of a mule with gourds— 'T is one! Then take it on the other side, Speak of some trifling fact, he will gaze rapt 150 With stupor at its very littleness, (Far as I see) as if in that indeed He caught prodigious ...
— Men and Women • Robert Browning
... thing, the Chinese mob another. It was not many years since an infuriated crowd stormed through the streets of Chengtu seeking the lives of the foreigners, and in even fewer weeks after my visit other crowds would besiege the viceroy's yamen demanding justice for their wrongs. For even when I was there the undercurrent of discontent in the province was visible. The students of the university, like those in Yunnan-fu, had more than once got out of hand; people complained ...
— A Wayfarer in China - Impressions of a trip across West China and Mongolia • Elizabeth Kendall
... fruits of his unparalleled victories. His conduct toward those cities which resisted in attacks most stubbornly was in striking contrast to that of Alexander. As Alexander advanced to invade Egypt, he found at Gaza a garrison so strong that he was obliged to besiege it. It held out a long time, during which he received two wounds; this provoked him to such a degree that when he had captured the place he treated the ...
— Twentieth Century Negro Literature - Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating - to the American Negro • Various
... his gates shut fast and not answer the challenge. But in those days it was a sign of great cowardice not to accept a challenge. Moreover, since Sir Lancelot had been able to reach the castle in spite of the archers, he was afraid other knights of the Round Table might do the same. Then they would besiege him and force him to surrender. Still he was afraid to fight. So he went to Queen ...
— King Arthur and His Knights • Maude L. Radford
... saith, "is meet, Else were Heaven not half so sweet." Following after goad and plough, With unruffled breast and brow, Is to him an hundred-fold Dearer than, for treasured gold, Even in King Arthur's form, Castles to besiege and storm. ...
— A Celtic Psaltery • Alfred Perceval Graves
... Fraser, its commander, was able to surprise Alexandria on March 30, he awaited in vain the expected news of Duckworth's success; he proceeded to attack Rosetta with as little generalship as Whitelocke had shown at Buenos Ayres, and encountered a similar repulse. An attempt to besiege the town met with no better fortune: the British troops submitted to a capitulation, evacuated Egypt, and sailed for Sicily in September, 1807. In an imperial manifesto addressed to the French nation at the end of this year, the ...
— The Political History of England - Vol XI - From Addington's Administration to the close of William - IV.'s Reign (1801-1837) • George Brodrick
... restoration, and also secured the services of the Illyrians. Sitting down before the city, they issued a proclamation to the effect that any of the natives that chose, and the foreigners, might depart unharmed, with the alternative of being treated as enemies. On their refusal the Corcyraeans proceeded to besiege the city, which stands on an isthmus; and the Corinthians, receiving intelligence of the investment of Epidamnus, got together an armament and proclaimed a colony to Epidamnus, perfect political equality being guaranteed to all who chose to go. Any who ...
— The History of the Peloponnesian War • Thucydides
... very near to showing Augustus as he really was, still permits himself to speak of him as "chilly and statuesque." But can you imagine the mob so in love with a chilly and statuesque—tyrant, or statesman, or politician,—as to besiege the senate-house and clamor for an extension of his powers? And this chilly statuesque person was the man who delighted in sharing in their games ...
— The Crest-Wave of Evolution • Kenneth Morris
... who sent his son Titus to besiege Jerusalem— became emperor in 69. The war was carried on with great energy, and by 78 Wales was ...
— A Short History of Wales • Owen M. Edwards
... long and short guns, used at the Siege of Madrid in A.D. 1084, are preserved in the Armeria Real. Viardot has noted that the African Arabs first employed cannon in A.D. 1200, and that the Maghribis defended Algeciras near Gibraltar with great guns in A. D. 1247, and utilised them to besiege Seville in A.D. 1342. This last feat of arms introduced the cannon into barbarous Northern Europe, and it must have been known to civilised Asia for many a decade before ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 10 • Richard F. Burton
... withdrawn into their works on Brooklyn Heights, and Howe advanced to besiege them. During the next two days Washington collected boats and on the night of the 29th conveyed the army across the East River to New York. With the enemy's fleet patrolling the harbour and their army watching the ...
— The War of Independence • John Fiske
... once set out on his march so that he might carry on the war as far as possible from his own territory. He hoped to frighten Pyrrhus by showing the latter those men advancing against him of their own accord whom he had thought to besiege. In the course of his journey he seized a strong strategic point in the land of the Lucanians, and he left behind a force in Lucania to hinder the people from giving ...
— Dio's Rome, Volume 1 (of 6) • Cassius Dio
... partner of my nuptial joy, Auxiliar troops combined, to conquer Troy. My lord's protecting hand alone would raise My drooping verdure, and extend my praise! Peers from the distant Samian shore resort: Here with Dulichians join'd, besiege the court: Zacynthus, green with ever-shady groves, And Ithaca, presumptuous, boast their loves: Obtruding on my choice a second lord, They press the Hymenaean rite abhorr'd. Misrule thus mingling with domestic cares, I live ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer, translated by Alexander Pope
... of Protestants threw themselves into Rouen. Antony of Bourbon headed an army of the Catholics to besiege the city. A ball struck him, and he fell senseless to the ground. His attendants placed him, covered with blood, in a carriage, to convey him to a hospital. While in the carriage and jostling over the rough ground, and as the thunders ...
— Henry IV, Makers of History • John S. C. Abbott
... two stuck it out. Big Jack Skinner philosophically abandoned his pretensions, but Joe Hagland would not take his answer. He continued to besiege Bela, and the general opinion was that he would wear her out in the end. All of which did not help ...
— The Huntress • Hulbert Footner
... gloomy category, "The Tale of Gore-Zloshtchastye; How Gore-Zloshtchastye Brought the Young Man to the Monastic State," Gore-Zloshtchastye being, literally, "Woe-Misfortune." Woe-Misfortune persecutes the youth, who finds no safety from him, save on one road, where, alone, he does not besiege him—the ...
— A Survey of Russian Literature, with Selections • Isabel Florence Hapgood
... Coggeshall village, word came to us that the Danes were gathering in force in Colchester, and that they expected Olaf to besiege them there. ...
— King Olaf's Kinsman - A Story of the Last Saxon Struggle against the Danes in - the Days of Ironside and Cnut • Charles Whistler
... Puarma and Las(?)-mer-sekni, the Nubian generals stationed in Egypt, and told them to assemble the troops, to seize the territory of Hermopolis, to besiege the city itself, to seize all the people, and cattle, and the boats on the river, and to stop all the agricultural operations that were going on; these orders were obeyed. At the same time he despatched a body of troops ...
— The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians • E. A. Wallis Budge
... had been a Royalist. The only incident which Bunyan speaks of connected with his military experience points in the same direction. 'When I was a soldier,' he says, 'I was with others drawn out to go to such a place to besiege it. But when I was just ready to go, one of the company desired to go in my room. Coming to the siege as he stood sentinel he was shot in the heart with a musket bullet and died.' Tradition agrees ...
— Bunyan • James Anthony Froude
... not satisfied, Herzberg! Nay, nay, do not deny it; you do not like that I should tarry and treat, and set the pen in motion instead of the sword. You are a man of deeds, and if you had had your way, I should have already won a decisive battle, and be on the road to Vienna to besiege the empress in her citadel, and dictate an humiliating peace ...
— Old Fritz and the New Era • Louise Muhlbach
... never easy to give the correct answer. When the Emperor happened to be a man of energy and was sufficiently well provided with money to organise an army, he was very apt to cross the Alps and march on Rome, besiege the Pope in his own palace if need be, and force His Holiness to obey the imperial instructions or ...
— The Story of Mankind • Hendrik van Loon
... of February 1746, he was sent with General Stapleton to besiege Fort William. He left that enterprise when summoned by Charles Edward to assemble around his standard on the field of Culloden. On the eventful fourteenth of April, the day before the battle, Lochiel joined the Prince's army: that night, the Highlanders, who never pitched a tent, lay among ...
— Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745. - Volume I. • Mrs. Thomson
... the rest Of suitors that besiege your maiden breast, Why may not I My fortune try, And venture to speak one good word, Not for myself, alas! but for ...
— Gifts of Genius - A Miscellany of Prose and Poetry by American Authors • Various
... Notwithstanding the retreat and her wound, however, she persevered, though now all to no purpose. The King himself retired, and the attack became a failure. Still Joan desired to march upon Paris for a renewed attack; but the King would not hear of it, and she was sent with troops badly equipped to besiege La Charite, where she again failed. For four weary months she remained inactive. She grew desperate; the voices neither encouraged nor discouraged her. She was now full of sad forebodings, yet her activity continued. She repaired to Compiegne, a city already besieged by the enemy, ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume VII • John Lord
... Leicester assembled his troops at Arnheim, which he made his headquarters. After reducing Doesburg, he prepared to besiege Zutphen, an important town on the Yssel. The garrison was in sore need of provisions, which Parma, before marching to its relief, determined to supply. A convoy of corn, meat, and other necessaries, sufficient to victual the place for three months, was accordingly collected, ...
— Stories of Authors, British and American • Edwin Watts Chubb
... days of winter passed, and brought, in passing, the news that Lerida had surrendered, and that the young and indefatigable general was about to besiege Tortosa. This was the last blow for poor Clarice. She understood that spring was coming, and with it a new campaign, which would retain the duke with the army. Strength failed her, and she was obliged ...
— The Conspirators - The Chevalier d'Harmental • Alexandre Dumas (Pere)
... irritable, and querulous. While proceeding with his last work, 'L'Ancien Regime et la Revolution,' he wrote: "After sitting at my desk for five or six hours, I can write no longer; the machine refuses to act. I am in great want of rest, and of a long rest. If you add all the perplexities that besiege an author towards the end of his work, you will be able to imagine a very wretched life. I could not go on with my task if it were not for the refreshing calm of Marie's companionship. It would be impossible to find a disposition forming a happier contrast ...
— Character • Samuel Smiles
... "We continued a very laborious march to Exeter, which we were ordered to besiege. The town soon surrendered, and his majesty built a castle there, which he garrisoned with his Normans, and unhappily I had the misfortune to ...
— From This World to the Next • Henry Fielding
... the best, the surest, and the most simple. It would, no doubt, have been simpler still, if we had been able to place some one directly behind the door of Mademoiselle's boudoir, which opened out of her bedchamber, and, in that way, had been in a position to besiege the two doors of the room in which the man was. But we could not penetrate the boudoir except by way of the drawing-room, the door of which had been locked on the inside by Mademoiselle Stangerson. ...
— The Mystery of the Yellow Room • Gaston Leroux
... different provinces. They dwelt upon the miseries of an internal and doubtful struggle. Determined never to depart from the assertion of what they considered as their indefeasible right, they would incessantly besiege the throne with their humble remonstrances. They would seek the clemency of England, rather than the alliance of those powers, whom they conceived to be the real enemies of both; nor would they ever be accessory to the shutting up the ...
— Four Early Pamphlets • William Godwin
... Germans—at Weissenburg (Aug. 4), over Marshal MacMahon at Woerth (Aug. 6), and at Spicheren on the same day—compelled the French army to retreat towards the Moselle. The Baden division was left to besiege Strasburg. The next great battles, of which Gravelotte (Aug. 18) was the most hotly contested, were fought for the purpose of preventing Marshal Bazaine from joining with the main army the forces of MacMahon. Bazaine was defeated, and confined with his immense body of troops in ...
— Outline of Universal History • George Park Fisher
... a branch of olive-tree, and spake The self-same words. On that you counsel took From your too lightly flattering French; two Counts Of yours you to the Pagan sent, the one, Bazan, Bastile the other, and their heads He struck off near Haltoie. As you began, War on! To Sarraguce your army lead, Besiege her walls, though all your life it take, And thus avenge the knights the ...
— La Chanson de Roland • Lon Gautier
... learning this contempt of her authority. The messengers of M. de Rohan were forthwith committed to the Bastille; orders were issued to the Duchess his mother, to his wife, and to his sisters, not to leave the capital; and preparations were even made to besiege the Duke in St. Jean-d'Angely as a rebel. Manifestoes to the Protestants were next put forth by both parties; that of the Queen-mother protesting that the aggressive measures which she was about to ...
— The Life of Marie de Medicis, Vol. 2 (of 3) • Julia Pardoe
... conjuncture, a hearty support from the prince, with whose fate was bound up the fate of the whole nation. Burnet told a large congregation from the pulpit how the Greeks, when the Great Turk was preparing to besiege Constantinople, could not be persuaded to contribute any part of their wealth for the common defence, and how bitterly they repented of their avarice when they were compelled to deliver up to the victorious infidels the ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 3 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... consequence to resign itself to feeding the first mentioned and to having the others as its enemies. From the top to the bottom of the social pyramid, from the humblest clerk to the professor and the prefect, the immense mass of persons boasting diplomas besiege the professions. While a business man has the greatest difficulty in finding an agent to represent him in the colonies, thousands of candidates solicit the most modest official posts. There are 20,000 schoolmasters and mistresses without employment in the department of the Seine alone, all of them ...
— The Crowd • Gustave le Bon
... after I was committed to prison, the sultan marched with his army to besiege the city of Sanaa, having, as I said before, 30,000 footmen, besides 3000 horsemen, born of Christian parents, who were black like the Ethiopians, and had been brought while young from the kingdom of Prester John, called in Latin Presbyter ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VII • Robert Kerr
... cities have I won for you, but Marsile has ever been treacherous. Once before when he sent messengers with olive-branches you and the French foolishly believed him, and he beheaded the two counts who were your ambassadors to him. Fight Marsile to the end, besiege and sack Saragossa, and avenge those ...
— Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race • Maud Isabel Ebbutt
... same state. The Duke of Buckingham and his English, masters of the Isle of Re, continued to besiege, but without success, the citadel St. Martin and the fort of La Pree; and hostilities with La Rochelle had commenced, two or three days before, about a fort which the Duc d'Angouleme had caused to ...
— The Three Musketeers • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... year 1704 there reigned in France Louis XIV., called Louis the Grand. He had greatly enlarged his dominions, taking one country after another. He possessed the whole between Holland and France, and now he was to besiege Nymegen and take Holland. The Hollanders said to the British: 'We have been good friends; you are strong. Surely you will not let this cruel king rob us of the fruits of our industry? Besides, if Louis takes one ...
— The Book-Hunter - A New Edition, with a Memoir of the Author • John Hill Burton
... from this unpleasant and perilous situation now depended upon the arrival of the rear train, and when we saw that the Indians were going to besiege us instead of renewing their attacks, we felt rather confident of receiving timely assistance. We had expected that the train would be along late in the afternoon of the previous day, and as the morning ...
— The Great Salt Lake Trail • Colonel Henry Inman
... be no doubt that the circumstances of Lord Woldo furnished him with food for thought—and very indigestible food too.... Why, at least one hundred sprightly female creatures were being brought up in the hope of marrying him. And they would all besiege him, and he could only marry one ...
— The Regent • E. Arnold Bennett
... when everything else had failed, she managed to make her brother, who was king of the neighbouring country, declare war against the emperor, and besiege some of the frontier towns with a large army. This time her scheme was successful. The young emperor sprang up in wrath the moment he heard the news, and vowed that nothing, not even his wife, should hinder his giving them battle. And hastily assembling whatever soldiers happened ...
— The Violet Fairy Book • Various
... "hundreds of vessels, both sail and steam, leave their home ports for foreign shores, or start from foreign ports for home. The day of the expected arrival comes and goes, two or three days drag by, and still there is no sign of them. Anxious relatives and friends besiege the shipping offices daily for word, and no word comes. When suspense has passed into assured disaster, the underwriters inscribe against that vessel's name the one word, "Missing!" An average of a vessel a day is the toll of the Seven ...
— The Boy With the U. S. Life-Savers • Francis Rolt-Wheeler
... that for King Don Sancho, and he put himself at the head of his army and hastened through Portugal to besiege his ...
— The Junior Classics, V4 • Willam Patten (Editor)
... suffering any further damage. To those who were watching Hood closely at Nashville, and especially to those who understood his character, there seemed no ground for either apprehension. All his operations indicated a serious attempt to besiege Nashville, though it was impossible to imagine what he could hope to accomplish, unless it was to wait in the most convenient place while his adversary, with all the great resources of the country at his back, got ready ...
— Forty-Six Years in the Army • John M. Schofield
... Amazons that had just taken place and how Webster and Forster wanted to insist on Miss Hahlstroem's appearing that very night. The artists' chivalry was aroused. They declared unanimously that they would refuse to give up their lovely ward, even if all New York were to come and besiege them. ...
— Atlantis • Gerhart Hauptmann
... "He is tied faster by his oath than by chains and fetters. It must be one of the Syrian beggars that besiege ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... There was a stormy discussion in the Hurst family, but it ended in her going away, with a bundle of manuscripts in her trunk, to brave the big city alone. She found a tiny furnished room and set forth to besiege the editors' offices. One evening she returned, to find the house being raided, a patrol wagon at the curb, and the lodgers being hustled into it. She crossed the street and walked on, and never saw her bag or baggage again. By the help of the Young Women's Christian Association she found another ...
— Americans All - Stories of American Life of To-Day • Various
... stupid. There must be some pleasure, or so many would not do it. But the full flavor, the whole relish of delight only comes to those who are so poor that they must engineer for every book. They sit down before them, and besiege them. They are captured. Each book has a secret history of ways and means. It reminds you of subtle devices by which you insured and made it ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 4 • Charles Dudley Warner
... cut off from them a considerable herd of cattle, on which the army could have subsisted for a long time. Ulric von Sax, leader of the Confederates, just as prudent as he was active, resolves to besiege Pavia for a while, because he thinks it not yet advisable to take it by storm. The French still endeavor to prevent a passage over the Po.[5] Here an incident happens almost as incredible as it is amusing. ...
— The Life and Times of Ulric Zwingli • Johann Hottinger
... over by the bridge of Strasburg. How different from the triumphant army, which with drums beating, and colours flying, had crossed at the same place six weeks before! Marlborough, having detached part of his force to besiege Ulm, drew near with the bulk of his army to the Rhine, which he passed near Philipsburg on the 6th September, and soon after commenced the siege of Landau, on the French side; Prince Louis with 20,000 men forming the besieging force, and Eugene and Marlborough with 30,000 ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol 58, No. 357, July 1845 • Various
... his other character, and she seemed to see, in a flash, his whole life in it. There was a touch of boyishness that appealed, a touch of insistent masterfulness that alarmed. She recalled that Mrs. Shorter had said of him that he had never had to besiege a fortress—the white flag had always appeared too quickly. Of course there was the mystery of Mrs. Maitland—still to be cleared up. It was plain, at least, that resistance merely made him ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... foes. He sails with over three thousand men, in thirty-six vessels, from Iloilo on January 5, 1606. The flagship is wrecked at La Caldera; the other vessels mistake their course, and do not reach the Moluccas until late in March. They besiege Ternate, and finally carry it by assault; the city and fort are pillaged by the soldiers. Afterward the king is induced to surrender and Acuna makes a treaty with him. The king surrenders his forts and restores all captives; delivers up any Dutchmen or ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XVI, 1609 • H.E. Blair
... [247],—and marched towards the gates of Athens, joined, as they proceeded, by all those Athenians who hoped, in the downfall of Hippias, the resurrection of their liberties. The Spartan troops hastened to besiege the Athenian prince in the citadel, to which he retired with his forces. But Hippias had provided his refuge with all the necessaries which might maintain him in a stubborn and prolonged resistance. The Spartans were unprepared for the siege—the blockade of a few days sufficed to ...
— Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton |
