ball, which often did some little
mischief; a sergeant was killed by one, which at the same time took
another's arm off, and I myself had a narrow escape one day whilst in
the breastworks, from a six-pounder which having struck the convent,
rebounded and caught me in the chest. Luckily it was nearly spent, but
as it was it knocked me down, and it was some time before I could
recover my breath, and that not until my comrades had poured some rum
and water down my throat. My chest was much discoloured and swollen,
through which I was ill for nearly a week.

By the 19th of January two practicable breaches were made in the walls
of the town, and an attack was ordered. Our colonel volunteered for
the forlorn hope, but it was put under other commanders, being chiefly
composed of the rifles. The main breach was committed to General
Picton's division, and the brigades of General Vandeleur and Colonel
Barnet were ordered to attack the smaller breach, headed by a
storming-party of three hundred men and a forlorn hope, under Major
George Napier of the Fifty-second regiment. The forlorn hope assembled
between seven and eight o'clock under the walls of the convent we were
then occupying, which protected them a little from the enemy's shot.
All was deathly silent amongst those men, who perhaps could not help
thinking that it might be their last undertaking: in fact, this is
much the worst business a soldier can enter upon, as scarcely anything
but death looks him in the face. There they were watching with intense
anxiety for the to many fatal signal; and at length the order was
given to advance.

The assault was to be conducted on all sides at once, and in double
quick time the troops were at the breach, although the ladders, which
were being carried by the Portuguese, when wanted had disappeared. Our
troops nevertheless pushed onwards and gained the breach, when either
through accident or the neglect of the train-man, a mine was sprung
before the French were clearly off it, and both French and English
were suddenly blown into the air and buried together in the ruin.
After the smother had fairly cleared away, our troops met with very
little difficulty in mounting the breach and scouring the ramparts,
the French throwing down their arms and retiring into the town itself,
where after a brief contest in the streets, the whole surviving
garrison surrendered; but it was not without the loss of many of the
bravest men on our side in the f