ould laugh me to scorn. No: though my narrative is
extraordinary, it is nevertheless authentic; and never, never would
I sacrifice truth for the mere sake of effect. The fact is this:--the
citadel of Allyghur is situated upon a rock, about a thousand feet
above the level of the sea, and is surrounded by fourteen walls, as his
Excellency was good enough to remark in his despatch. A man who would
mount these without scaling-ladders, is an ass; he who would SAY he
mounted them without such assistance, is a liar and a knave. We HAD
scaling-ladders at the commencement of the assault, although it was
quite impossible to carry them beyond the first line of batteries.
Mounted on them, however, as our troops were falling thick about me, I
saw that we must ignominiously retreat, unless some other help could
be found for our brave fellows to escalade the next wall. It was about
seventy feet high. I instantly turned the guns of wall A on wall B, and
peppered the latter so as to make, not a breach, but a scaling
place; the men mounting in the holes made by the shot. By this simple
stratagem, I managed to pass each successive barrier--for to ascend a
wall which the General was pleased to call "as smooth as glass" is an
absurd impossibility: I seek to achieve none such:--

"I dare do all that may become a man,
Who dares do more, is neither more nor less."

Of course, had the enemy's guns been commonly well served, not one of us
would ever have been alive out of the three; but whether it was owing to
fright, or to the excessive smoke caused by so many pieces of artillery,
arrive we did. On the platforms, too, our work was not quite so
difficult as might be imagined--killing these fellows was sheer
butchery. As soon as we appeared, they all turned and fled
helter-skelter, and the reader may judge of their courage by the fact
that out of about seven hundred men killed by us, only forty had wounds
in front, the rest being bayoneted as they ran.

And beyond all other pieces of good fortune was the very letting out of
these tigers; which was the dernier ressort of Bournonville, the second
commandant of the fort. I had observed this man (conspicuous for a
tri-colored scarf which he wore) upon every one of the walls as we
stormed them, and running away the very first among the fugitives.
He had all the keys of the gates; and in his tremor, as he opened the
menagerie portal, left the whole bunch in the door, which I seized when
th