the time had come to bring the siege to
a close by a general assault. The twenty-seventh of August was the day
assigned for it. On that preceding he fired three mines, which shook
down some fragments of the wall, but did less execution than was
expected. On the morning of the twenty-seventh, his whole force was
under arms. The duke divided it into as many corps as there were
breaches, placing these corps under his best and bravest officers. He
proposed to direct the assault in person.

Coligni made his preparations also with consummate coolness. He posted a
body of troops at each of the breaches, while he and his brother
Dandelot took charge of the two which, still more exposed than the
others, might be considered as the post of danger. He had the
satisfaction to find, in this hour of trial, that the men, as well as
their officers, seemed to be animated with his own heroic spirit.

Before proceeding to storm the place, the duke of Savoy opened a brisk
cannonade, in order to clear away the barricades of timber, and other
temporary defences, which had been thrown across the breaches. The fire
continued for several hours, and it was not till afternoon that the
signal was given for the assault. The troops rushed forward,--Spaniards,
Flemings, English, and Germans,--spurred on by feelings of national
rivalry. A body of eight thousand brave Englishmen had joined the
standard of Philip in the early part of the campaign;[222] and they now
eagerly coveted the opportunity for distinction which had been denied
them at the battle of St. Quentin, where the fortune of the day was
chiefly decided by cavalry. But no troops felt so keen a spur to their
achievements as the Spaniards, fighting as they were under the eye of
their sovereign, who from a neighboring eminence was spectator of the
combat.

The obstacles were not formidable in the path of the assailants, who
soon clambered over the fragments of masonry and other rubbish which lay
scattered below the ramparts, and, in the face of a steady fire of
musketry, presented themselves before the breaches. The brave men
stationed to defend them were in sufficient strength to occupy the open
spaces; their elevated position gave them some advantage over the
assailants, and they stood to their posts with the resolution of men
prepared to die rather than surrender. A fierce conflict now ensued
along the whole extent of the ramparts; and the French, sustained by a
dauntless spirit, bore th