e at once brought up and placed in
position here, and opened fire on the Guben gate. Captain Gunter, of
Hepburn's regiment, went forward with twelve men, and in spite of a very
heavy fire from the walls reconnoitred the ditch and approaches to the
walls.

The next day all was ready for the assault. It was Palm Sunday, the
3d of April, and the attack was to take place at five o'clock in the
afternoon. Before advancing, Hepburn and several of the other officers
wished to lay aside their armour, as its weight was great, and would
impede their movements. The king, however, forbade them to do so.

"No," he said; "he who loves my service will not risk life lightly. If
my officers are killed, who is to command my soldiers?"

Fascines and scaling ladders were prepared. The Green Brigade were to
head the assault, and Gustavus, addressing them, bade them remember New
Brandenburg.

At five o'clock a tremendous cannonade was opened on the walls from all
the Swedish batteries, and under cover of the smoke the Green Brigade
advanced to the assault. From the circle of the walls a cloud of smoke
and fire broke out from cannon and arquebus, muskets, and wall pieces.
Sir John Hepburn and Colonel Lumsden, side by side, led on their
regiments against the Guben gate; both carried petards.

In spite of the tremendous fire poured upon them from the wall they
reached the gate, and the two colonels fixed the petards to it and
retired a few paces. In a minute there was a tremendous explosion, and
the gate fell scattered in fragments. Then the Scottish pikemen rushed
forward. As they did so there was a roar of cannon, and a storm of
bullets ploughed lanes through the close ranks of the pikemen, for the
Imperialists, expecting the attack, had placed cannon, loaded to the
muzzle with bullets, behind the gates.

Munro's regiment now leapt into the moat, waded across, and planting
their ladders under a murderous fire, stormed the works flanking the
gate, and then joined their comrades, who were striving to make an
entrance. Hepburn, leading on the pikemen, was hit on the knee, where he
had in a former battle been badly wounded.

"Go on, bully Munro," he said jocularly to his old schoolfellow, "for I
am wounded."

A major who advanced to take his place at the head of the regiment
was shot dead, and so terrible was the fire that even the pikemen of
Hepburn's regiment wavered for a moment; but Munro and Lumsden, with
their vizors down and half