[Footnote 85: The Persian historian of Timur (tom. iii. l.
v. c. 21, p. 300) describes the castle of Aleppo as founded
on a rock one hundred cubits in height; a proof, says the
French translator, that he had never visited the place. It
is now in the midst of the city, of no strength with a
single gate; the circuit is about 500 or 600 paces, and the
ditch half full of stagnant water, (Voyages de Tavernier,
tom. i. p. 149 Pocock, vol. ii. part i. p. 150.) The
fortresses of the East are contemptible to a European eye.]