the regiment to an old shell of a house, which could scarcely afford cover to twenty men, much less to the numbers who thronged into it, and who were so closely jammed that they could not move; and so the outside portion were exposed to the fire from the left bastion of the town, which completely out-flanked them, and from which the matchlock-men kept pouring in a cool and most destructive fire upon this dense mass with the utmost impunity; while a wide, broken-down doorway in the centre exposed them to a fire from another bastion in their front, if ever they shewed their nose for an instant to see how matters were going on, or to return their fire.  Poor fellows! you may guess their situation was anything but pleasant.  The consequences soon began to shew themselves—­eight men and one officer (poor Gravatt) were shot dead, and several more were severely wounded, and had the artillery been less expeditious in knocking down the gate, the greatest part of them would have been annihilated.  The other part of the regiment (myself among the rest) were more fortunate.  Seeing so many rushing to one place, I made for another shelter, about twenty paces to the rear, which consisted of a long wall, about five feet high, and which afforded ample cover to us all.  It was within seventy yards of the bastion that proved so fatal to the other party, and from which they kept up a pretty good fire upon us whenever we exposed ourselves.  However, I was so excited that nothing would do but I must see the whole affair; this, however, was rather foolish, as every now and then they would direct their attention to us, and send in a volley, which would sing over us and knock up the dust and the old wall about us in good style.  Simmons’s horse (the Adjutant’s) was foolishly brought down, and had not been a second there when it was shot slap through the hind-leg.  The ground behind us was raised a little, so that the horse’s leg was in a line with and nearly touching my head as I stood looking over the wall; on reaching the cover we found four or five poor fellows who had been wounded in the rush down the hill, and who had crawled in here as well as they could.

I had an excellent view of the further proceedings from this place.  Right above us on the redoubt, from which we had driven the enemy, our artillery had now established themselves, and were slapping away as hard as they could at the gate.  I could see every shot as it struck:  they made some very clever shots, sending the balls all about the gate, and sometimes knocking down a portion of the bastion over it, considerably deranging the operations of the matchlock-men who were in it; but still the old gate would not fall.  In the mean time, the advance companies, which had been in quiet possession of the gardens, inclosures, &c., since the beginning of the affair, were now ordered up to a wall about thirty yards in front of the doorway.  They had to run over about three hundred yards of open country before