rampart

rampart \ram-pahrt\, noun:

1. A fortification consisting of an embankment, often with a parapet built on top.
2. A means of protection or defense; a bulwark.
3. To defend with a rampart.

To stand upon ramparts and die for our principles is heroic, but to sally forth to battle and win for our principles is something more than heroic.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corpse to the rampart we hurried.
-- Charles Wolfe, The Burial of Sir John Moore

There is no rampart that will hold out against malice.
-- Moliere

Rampart derives from Middle French remparer, equivalent to re + emparer "to take the possesion of."