army. The army consisted of forty-eight thousand infantry, nine thousand cavalry, and six thousand artillery, the latter comprising a siege train for the special purpose of reducing the Antwerp citadel. The British fleet comprised five ships of the line, the French fleet included three ships of the line and five frigates, and these combined armaments made their rendezvous on the coast of England and sailed together for the Scheldt. It was an odd spectacle to see England and France co-operating in warfare after centuries of enmity.
For more than a year the town of Antwerp had been in the possession of Belgium while the citadel was held by General Chassé, the Dutch commander, with a garrison of five thousand men. It was commonly called the "citadel du Sud" to distinguish it from the "citadel du Nord" on the other side of Antwerp. This celebrated fortress was separated from the city by an esplanade, and commanded the harbor, as it was close to the bank of the Scheldt. It was long considered one of the strongest places in Europe, and owed its existence to the Duke of Alva, during the war between Spain and the United Provinces in the sixteenth century, to command the navigation of the Scheldt and be the principal frontier post toward Holland. Napoleon added greatly to its strength when he formed the design of invading England, and decided upon Antwerp as his base. The invention of rifled cannon in later times has rendered this citadel of less consequence than formerly, and in 1874 it was dismantled, but not until Antwerp had been provided with other and more modern defences,
One side of the fortress (towards the west) was protected by the river; towards the land it was covered by several strong outworks, but these were of little avail at the time of the siege, as the garrison was not sufficiently large to man them all. The garrison, five thousand strong, was composed of veteran soldiers who were well
