The _coup de main_ method of attack has probably been the same in most ages, and undoubtedly was the chief means resorted to by primitive man. His missile weapons during the Stone, Bronze, and Early Iron Ages were of no use against earth ramparts crowned by thick palisading; sling, stones, arrows, and spears were only efficacious against the bodies of his enemies, and hand-to-hand combat was therefore a necessity. Hence we may imagine a concentration against a presumably weak point, a sudden rush, the plunge into the dry ditch and a rapid scramble up the scarp towards the palisades under a shower of arrows, stones, and other missiles; the mad escalade of the defences surmounting the earthwork and the fierce resistance of the defenders, followed by a successful entry or a disastrous repulse and retreat. Precisely the same course was pursued in the medieval period when a rapid bridging of the moat by planks and beams would be attempted, scaling ladders would be reared, and, protected by their shields from the rain of missiles, the assailants, covered by their archers' fire of arrows and bolts upon the ramparts, would mount their ladders and attempt to effect a lodgment upon the walls. And, although weapons and conditions have changed, the assault to-day is made upon the self-same methods. If, instead of the _coup de main_, a sustained siege is decided upon the knight will order his "gyns" to be brought up to the front, and large and heavy ones to be built upon the spot. From the time when Uzziah "made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal,"[1] down to the invention of cannon, the ingenuity of man has been exercised in devising machines for hurling missiles to a distance. The Greeks, Romans, and other nations of antiquity brought them to perfection, and marvellous results were obtained in ancient sieges; the vivid account by Plutarch of the great engines used at the attack upon Syracuse, B.C. 214-212, reads almost like romance. Caesar frequently mentions this artillery, and especially the portable balistae for throwing arrows and casting stones; they were fitted with axles and wheels and manoeuvred like batteries of cannon at the present day. Larger engines were constructed as required like those of the medieval period. [Footnote 1: 2 Chron. xxvi. 15.] [Illustration: TANTALLON CASTLE, HADDINGTONSHIRE.]