re of grape and musketry, and they are the
devil's own brooms; but our gallant fellows walked through it, to the
point of attack, with the most determined steadiness, excepting the
Portuguese sack-bearers, most of whom lay down behind their bags, to
wait the result, while the few that were thrown into the ditch looked
so like dead bodies, that, when I leapt into it, I tried to avoid
them.

The advantage of being on a storming party is considered as giving the
prior claim to be _put out of pain_, for they receive the first fire,
which is generally the best, not to mention that they are also
expected to receive the earliest salutation from the beams of timber,
hand-grenades, and other missiles, which the garrison are generally
prepared to transfer from the top of the wall, to the tops of the
heads of their foremost visitors. But I cannot say that I, myself,
experienced any such preference, for every ball has a considerable
distance to travel, and I have generally found them equally ready to
pick up their man at the end, as at the beginning of their flight;
luckily, too, the other preparations cannot always be accommodated to
the moment, so that, on the whole, the _odds_ are pretty _even_, that,
all concerned come in for an equal share of whatever happens to be
going on.

We had some difficulty at first in finding the breach, as we had
entered the ditch opposite to a ravelin, which we mistook for a
bastion. I tried first one side of it and then the other, and seeing
one corner of it a good deal battered, with a ladder placed against
it, I concluded that it must be the breach, and calling to the
soldiers near me, to follow. I mounted with the most ferocious intent,
carrying a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other; but, when I
got up, I found nobody to fight with, except two of our own men, who
were already laid dead across the top of the ladder. I saw, in a
moment, that I had got into the wrong box, and was about to descend
again, when I heard a shout from the opposite side, that the breach
was there; and, moving in that direction, I dropped myself from the
ravelin, and landed in the ditch, opposite to the foot of the breach,
where I found the head of the storming party just beginning to fight
their way into it. The combat was of short duration, and, in less than
half an hour from the commencement of the attack, the place was in our
possession.

After carrying the breach, we met with no further opposition, and
mo