and then Bussy, seeing that nothing whatever could be done
towards assaulting the fortress, so long as the battery remained in
the hands of the besieged, determined to make a desperate effort to
carry it, ignorant of its immense strength. At night, therefore, he
ordered two bodies of men, each fifteen hundred strong, to mount the
hillside, far to the right and left of the town; to move along at the
foot of the wall of rock, and to carry the battery by storm at
daybreak.

Charlie, believing that such an attempt would be made, had upon the
day following the fall of the town taken his post there, and had
ordered a most vigilant watch to be kept up, each night; placing
sentries some hundred yards away, on either side, to give warning of
the approach of an enemy.

Towards daybreak on the third morning a shot upon the left, followed a
few seconds later by one on the right, told that the enemy were
approaching. A minute or two afterwards the sentries ran in, climbed
from the ditch by ladders which had been placed there for the purpose,
and, hauling these up after them, were soon in the battery, with the
news that large bodies of the enemy were approaching on either flank.
Scarcely were the garrison at their posts, when the French were seen
approaching. At once they broke into a run, and, gallantly led, dashed
across the space of cleared rock, in spite of the heavy fire of
musketry and grape.

When they came, however, to the edge of the deep gulf in the solid
rock, they paused. They had had no idea of meeting with such an
obstacle as this. It was easy enough to leap down, but impossible to
climb up the steep face, ten feet high, in front of them; and which,
in the dim light, could be plainly seen. It was, however, impossible
for those in front to pause. Pressed upon by those behind, who did not
know what was stopping them, large numbers were compelled to jump into
the trench, where they found themselves unable either to advance or
retreat.

By this time, every gun on the upper side of the castle had opened on
the assailing columns, taking them in flank, while the fire of the
battery was continued without a moment's intermission. Bussy himself,
who was commanding one of the columns, pushed his way through his
struggling soldiers to the edge of the trench; when, seeing the
impossibility of scaling the sides, unprovided as he was with scaling
ladders, he gave the orders to retreat; and the columns, harassed by
the flanking