What is "bombards"

Usage examples of "bombards".

They had found and had had borne up to the suite an immense chess setthe board a yard square and fashioned of squares of semiprecious stones framed in gilded silver, the pieces each an exquisite little marble or alabaster statuette, the kings and the queens wearing real golden crowns with tiny gemstones inset, the knights all armored and grasping perfect little swords of real steel, the bishops equipped with steel maces, the rooks complete to the last detail and including infinitesimally small bombards of brass mounted on the tower tops.

But I noted last year that the smaller fortaleza is become little more than a crumbling and uncared-for ruin, bare of any ordnance, while the larger, the main castillo, though in fair repair, has been stripped of all save only the very largest pieces, mostly aged bombards not suitable for shipboard use, though very dangerous enough if one chances to sail within range of the stones they cast.

Sir Ali had no way of ascertaining this and could do nothing about it in any case, since no one of the archaic battery left mounted in the castillo pointed toward the harbor or the town, and the monster bombards were just too heavy to move to locations from which they would.

Though mostly victorious, he had suffered a few defeats, but he had never lost an army or any substantial portion of one, or any single one of the precious and difficult-of-replacement bombards or siege cannon, and he had no slightest intention of now breaking that sterling practice through leaving his siege train undefended.

But I noted last year that the smaller forteleza is become little more than a crumbling and uncared-for ruin, bare of any ordnance, while the larger, the main caxtillo, though in fair repair, has been stripped of all save only the very largest pieces, mostly aged bombards not suitable for shipboard use, though very dangerous enough if one chances to sail within range of the stones they cast.