ly, he has
given me leave to march our men up there, at daybreak tomorrow;
taking with us ten days' provisions.

"I said that if he had trouble with the other Portuguese regiments
I would, on his hoisting a red flag on the church steeple, march in
at once to seize and shoot the leaders of the mutiny, if he wished
it. Of course, one of my reasons for wanting to take charge of the
redoubts was that we should have more chance of withdrawing, from
them, than we should of getting out of the town, itself, in the
confusion and panic of an approaching surrender."

Bull and Ryan both agreed with Terence and, at daybreak the next
morning, the half battalion marched out, relieved the Portuguese
troops holding the two redoubts, and established themselves there.
They had brought with them a number of intrenching tools, and were
accompanied by an engineer officer. So, as soon as they reached the
redoubts, several parties of men were set to work, to begin to sink
pits for driving galleries in the direction of the approaches that
the French were pushing forward; while others assisted a party of
artillerymen to work the guns. Some of the best shots in the corps
took their places on the rampart, and were directed to maintain a
steady fire on the French working parties.

The roar of cannon, when the French batteries opened fire on the
town, was prodigious; and it was not long before it was evident
that there was no present design, on the part of the French, to
effect a breach.

"I expect they have lots of friends in the town," Terence said to
Dick Ryan, as they watched the result of the fire; "and they make
sure that the garrison will very soon lose heart. Do you see how
many shots are striking the old castle? That looks as if the French
knew that it was the magazine. They are dropping shell there, too;
and that alone is enough to cause a scare in the town, for if one
of them dropped into the magazine, the consequences would be
terrific. They are not pushing on the trenches against us with
anything like the energy with which they have been working for the
past week; and it is certainly curious that they should not keep up
a heavier fire from their batteries upon us, for it is evident that
they cannot make an assault, on this side of the town, at any rate,
until they have captured our redoubts."

"I wish we were well out of it," Ryan exclaimed. "It is quite
certain that the place must fall, sooner or later; and though we
might beat