The round towers, however, were not the sole defenses of the gates.
Outside each one of them was a kind of fence of pointed beams after the
manner of a chevaux-de-frise, while outside the ditch and close to the
bridge stood a barrier, by the side of which was a guard-house. Tho it
was not till 1598 that all the main gates were fitted with drawbridges,
the wooden bridges that served before that could doubtless easily be
destroyed in cases of emergency. Double-folding doors and portcullises
protected the gateways themselves. Once past there, the enemy was far
from being in the town, for the road led through extensive advanced
works, presenting, as in the case of the Laufer Thor outwork, a regular
"place d'armes." Further, the road was so engineered as not to lead in a
straight line from the outer main gates to the inner ones, but rather so
as to pursue a circuitous course. Thus the enemy in passing through from
the one to the other were exposed as long as possible to the shots and
projectiles of the defenders, who were stationed all round the walls and
towers flanking the advanced tambour. This arrangement may be traced
very clearly at the Frauen Thor to-day. The position of the round tower,
it will be observed, was an excellent one for commanding the road from
the outer to the inner gate.

At intervals of every 120 or 150 feet the interior wall is broken by
quadrilateral towers. Some eighty-three of these, including the gate
towers, can still be traced. What the number was originally we do not
know. It is the sort of subject on which chroniclers have no manner of
conscience. The Hartmann Schedel Chronicle, for instance, gives
Nuremberg 365 towers in all. The fact that there are 365 days in the
year is of course sufficient proof of this assertion! The towers, which
rise two or even three stories above the wall, communicated on both
sides with the covered way. They are now used as dwelling-houses. On
some of them there can still be seen, projecting near the roof, two