parties in the enemy's
trenches made no attempt to push them farther forward, Terence
withdrew the men from their exposed position on the ramparts--leaving
only a few there on the lookout--and told the rest to lie down on the
inner slopes, so as to be in shelter from the French fire. Bull was
in command of the force in the other redoubt, which was a quarter of
a mile away. The redoubts were, however, connected by a deep ditch,
so that communication could be kept up between them, or reinforcements
sent from one to the other, unobserved by the enemy, except by those
on one or two elevated spots.

All day the roar of the cannon continued. From a dozen points,
smoke and flame rose from the city, and towards these the French
batteries chiefly directed their fire, in order to hinder the
efforts of the garrison to check the progress of the conflagration.

Just after dark, as Ryan and Terence were sitting down in an angle
of the bastion to eat their supper, there was a tremendous roar;
accompanied by so terrible a shock that both were thrown prostrate
upon the ground with a force that, for the moment, half stunned
them. A broad glare of light illuminated the sky. There was the
rumble and roar of falling buildings and walls; and then came dull,
crashing sounds as masses of brickwork, hurled high up into the
air, fell over the town and the surrounding country. Then came a
dead silence, which was speedily broken by the sound of loud
screams and shouts from the town.

"It is just as we feared," Terence said as, bruised and bewildered,
he struggled to his feet. "The magazine in the castle has
exploded."

He ordered the bugler to sound the assembly and, as the men
gathered, it was found that although many of them had been hurt
severely, by the violence with which they had been thrown down,
none had been killed either by the shock or the falling fragments.
An officer was at once sent to the other redoubt, to inquire how
they had fared; and to give orders to Bull to keep his men under
arms, lest the French should take advantage of the catastrophe, and
make a sudden attack.

"Ryan, do you take the command of the men, here, until I come back.
I will go into the town and see Colonel Cox. I fear that the damage
will be so great that the town will be really no longer defensible
and, even if it were, the Portuguese troops will be so cowed that
there will be no more fight left in them."

It was but five hundred yards to the wall. Ter