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MINUTES OF PKOCEEDINGS OF 
trench ; ran out into the surf. Between the new and the old walls (which 
were still retained); on the west and south sides, intervened a wet ditch, 
part of the channel of a choked up bed of the adjacent river, which had been 
diverted for the purpose. The morass also has been already mentioned. 
Our chief business now is with the north side, where the brunt of the attack 
and defence was to be waged. The great glory of the new works was the 
royal bastion. This, completely embracing the old north-west bastion, 
had three faces; each grinning formidable defiance from many embrasures; 
the eastern face curving inwards, and confronting a similar face of the demi- 
bastion, which partially covered the old north-east bastion, but left some of its 
guns free to range along the flank of the new work. A “ blind " of earth had 
been raised to cover the exposed northern face of the old structure. A broad 
terrace (in non-military phrase) connected the royal with the demi-bastion. 
A trench, dry but deep and broad, and palisaded, ran in front of the whole 
line of defence on this side; which was completed by a strong north ravelin, 
opposite the curtain. I shrink from the perilous minutiae of cuvettes and 
caponieres, and other technicalities, the application of which I do not 
thoroughly understand; and need only indicate -the position of Pigot's 
bastion and the north-west lunette, on the western side of the fort. 
Though some time elapsed before the enemy were well supplied with 
ammunition, or even with guns (which they seem to have obtained mostly 
from their remaining men-of-war), they lost no time in constructing batteries, 
as follows. To the north, on the verge of the Black Town, and close to 
the sea, 500 yards from the fort, was raised what the English called Tally's 
battery, consisting of both cannon and mortars. While the latter threw shells 
into the town, and did much damage to the houses, the former bore chiefly 
on the demi and old north-east bastions; and, from an angle close to the sea, 
on the east face of the north ravelin. Pour mortars were planted to the 
north of the burying ground. To the east of it, and named from it, another 
battery bore on the western face of the north ravelin, on the demi, and 
diagonally on the royal and old north-west bastions. The English styled 
the Lorrain a battery which enfiladed the royal, and sweeping the terrace 
on its eastern side commanded also the old north-east bastion; while a 
return, on the north of the Lorrain, bore on the north-west face of Pigot's 
bastion. Lastly, the hospital ricochet battery sent its terrible leaping 
missives over the north-west lunette, the old north-west bastion, and on to 
the demi-bastion. On the bar to the south the Erench also planted some 
guns, more to intercept communications between the garrison and their 
friends without the walls, than to bear directly upon the works. 
They then actively pushed on trenches from Laity's battery towards the 
main object of their attack, the north-east angle of the fort; and ere long, 
at the second “ crochet" (or demi-parallel) constructed another battery, 
also of both cannon and mortars; the guns bearing mainly on the east front 
of the north ravelin, preparatory to the erection of the breaching battery, 
close up to the glacis of the chief angle of assault. 
On the other hand, every effort was made to retard and frustrate their 
exertions. So vigorous and well-directed was the fire of the fort that it 
again and again silenced for awhile the enemy's guns. Cannon were dis¬ 
mounted and ruined rapidly and constantly on both sides; embrasures had to 
be closed for repairs; and the sturdy and frequent sallies of the besieged, the 
