On the same night, at ten o’clock, Sir William Pelham, came to the Earl to tell him “what beastly pioneers the Dutchmen were.  “Leicester accordingly determined, notwithstanding the lord-marshal’s entreaties, to proceed to the trenches in person.  There being but faint light, the two lost their way, and soon found themselves nearly, at the gate of the town.  Here, while groping about in the dark; and trying to effect their retreat, they were saluted with a shot, which struck Sir William in the stomach.  For an instant; thinking himself mortally injured, he expressed his satisfaction that he had been, between the commander-in-chief and the blow, and made other “comfortable and resolute speeches.”  Very fortunately, however, it proved that the marshal was not seriously hurt, and, after a few days, he was about his work as usual, although obliged—­ as the Earl of Leicester expressed it—­“to carry a bullet in his belly as long as he should live.”

Roger Williams, too, that valiant adventurer—­“but no, more valiant than wise, and worth his weight in gold,” according to the appreciative Leicester—­was shot through the arm.  For the dare-devil Welshman, much to the Earl’s regret, persisted in running up and down the trenches “with a great plume of feathers in his gilt morion,” and in otherwise making a very conspicuous mark of himself “within pointblank of a caliver.”

Notwithstanding these mishaps, however, the siege went successfully forward.  Upon the 2nd September the Earl began to batter, and after a brisk cannonade, from dawn till two in the afternoon, he had considerably damaged the wall in two places.  One of the breaches was eighty feet wide, the other half as large, but the besieged had stuffed them full of beds, tubs, logs of wood, boards, and “such like trash,” by means whereof the ascent was not so easy as it seemed.  The soldiers were excessively eager for the assault.  Sir John Norris came to Leicester to receive his orders as to the command of the attacking party.

The Earl referred the matter to him.  “There is no man,” answered Sir John, “fitter for that purpose than myself; for I am colonel-general of the infantry.”

But Leicester, not willing to indulge so unreasonable a proposal, replied that he would reserve him for service of less hazard and greater importance.  Norris being, as usual, “satis prodigus magnae animae,” was out of humour at the refusal, and ascribed it to the Earl’s persistent hostility to him and his family.  It was then arranged that the assault upon the principal breach should be led by younger officers, to be supported by Sir John and other veterans.  The other breach was assigned to the Dutch and Scotch-black Norris scowling at them the while with jealous eyes; fearing that they might get the start of the English party, and be first to enter the town.  A party of noble volunteers clustered about Sir John-Lord Burgh, Sir Thomas Cecil, Sir Philip Sidney, and his brother Robert among the rest—­most