INCIDENTS OF THE SIEGE. 295 



It was calculated that during the first three days the 

 Swedes sent the besieged 2,820 cannon balls. On the 

 25th of March the continued fire from the batteries 

 had made a breach in Roda-torn, or the red tower, one 

 of the three towers of the fortress ; when eight companies, 

 each consisting of 125 men, landed on the afternoon 

 of that day on Fastnings-IIolm in readiness to storm. 

 At dawn on the following morning (the 26th of March) 

 the batteries on Fontin were already vomiting death and 

 destruction on the dilapidated tower, and soon greatly 

 widened the breach. Sunrise was the signal for the 

 troops to storm. On three several occasions the Swedes 

 threw themselves with desperate fury into the open breach, 

 and were as often driven back by the valiant garrison. 

 After resting a while the trumpets sounded a renewal of 

 the charge. This time, however, the Danes awaited not 

 the coming of the assailants, but retreated from the walls, 

 when the Swedes, rushing frantically forward, took pos- 

 session of the tower. The conquerors, conceiving that 

 Bohus was already won, unfurled their national banner, 

 and Avildly shouted Victory! Victory! But at this 

 moment a mine was sprung by the besieged, when 

 Koda-torn, with 2,200 men, was blown, with a crash like 

 thunder, into the air. The poor fellows, environed in 

 fire and smoke, were carried to so great a height that their 

 blackened bodies looked like so many crows ; and whilst 

 aloft, so runs the story, were heard. to exclaim, in allusion 

 to their late joyful cry, " God be gracious to us we 

 thanked Thee too soon for our triumph." 



The governor of the fortress, as it afterwards appeared, 

 finding that he could no longer withstand the assailants, 

 caused a large quantity of gunpowder to be placed in 

 the vaults beneath' the tower, which was ignited by an 

 heroic man of the garrison, another Decius, who, 

 receiving a promise in the name of the King that his 



