signal; we had better be starting:" just as if one
was to get ready to take a ride to Brixham or elsewhere. Well; we fell
in, and in about a quarter of an hour off we went. The enemy returned
the fire from our batteries in good style, and there was a regular row.
They pointed their "Long Tom," a fifty-two pounder, towards us, and sent
the shot over our heads and a little to our left. The ball made a
terrific row rushing over us. Whilst we were marching down to the attack
the fire on both sides was at its height. The noise was fearful, and the
whole scene the grandest and, at the same time, the most awful I ever
witnessed. I caught myself, once or twice, trying to make myself as
small as I could. As we got nearer the gate it grew worse, and the
enemy, from their loop-holes, began to pepper us with matchlocks and
arrows. The scene now was splendid. The enemy, at the commencement of
the firing, threw out blue lights in several places, which looked
beautiful, and the flames of their and our artillery, together with the
smaller flashes from the matchlock men, added to the roar of their big
guns, the sharp cracking of the matchlocks, the whizzing of their cannon
balls and ours, (the latter of which, by-the-bye, went much nearer our
heads than the enemy's, as our artillery fired beautifully, and sent
their shot close over our heads, on the ramparts,) the singing of the
bullets, and the whizzing of their arrows, all combined, made up as
pretty a little row as one would wish to hear. Add to this, that it was
as dark as pitch, and you may judge of the effect. We made a rush over
the bridge, which the enemy had not destroyed, and continuing it up a
slight ascent, we found ourselves of a sudden close to the gate. Here
there was a check. Although the gate was blown down, still the remains
of it, and the barricade on the inside, rendered it a difficult place to
get over, particularly as it wanted at least half an hour of daylight,
and was perfectly dark. The two first sections were therefore a long
time getting through, during which the two last, to which I belonged,
were standing still outside, exposed to a cross fire from two round
towers, which flanked the entrance. Our men, however, kept up such a
smart fire upon every hole and opening that no man dared shew his nose,
and their fire was therefore rendered harmless. At length we moved in,
and found that, besides what I have mentioned above, there was a large
hole in the roof of the