night, large quantities of fresh earth were piled on the
outer barricade, which was now useful as forming a screen to that
behind it from the guns. All night the work at the parallel walls
continued, and by morning these had reached a height of three feet.

During the next two days the fight continued, without much advantage
on either side. Each day the enemy's guns shattered the outer
barricade, but this was as regularly repaired at night, in spite of
the heavy artillery and matchlock fire which they kept up towards the
spot.

On the fourth day the enemy pulled down a house, standing just in the
rear of their battery, and Charlie found that behind it they had
erected another. It was a solidly built work, of fifteen feet in
height, and the enemy must have laboured continuously at it, every
night. It had a strong and high parapet, of sandbags, protecting the
gunners from the musketry fire of the tower. The muzzles of four guns
projected through embrasures, which had been left for them, and these
opened fire over the heads of the gunners in the lower battery.

In spite of the efforts of the besieged, the enemy kept up so heavy a
fire that, by the afternoon, the inner as well as the outer barricade
was knocked to pieces. By this time, however, the inner walls were
completed, and the English awaited the storm with confidence. The
doorway of the temple had been closed, and blocked up behind; but the
doors had been shattered to pieces, by the shot which had passed
through the gateway, and the entrance now stood open.

Inside the temple, out of the line of fire, Charlie had the two little
field pieces, each crammed to the muzzle with bullets, placed in
readiness to fire. The lower floor of the tower had been pierced,
above the gateway, and here two huge caldrons filled with boiling
lead, stripped from the roof, stood ready for action.

At three in the afternoon, after a furious cannonade, the fire of the
enemy's battery suddenly ceased. They had formed communications
between the houses, on either side of the street; and, at the signal,
the troops poured out from these in large bodies, and rushed to the
assault.

The guns from the tower, which had been awaiting the moment, poured
showers of grape among them; but, believing that the temple now lay at
their mercy, the enemy did not hesitate, but rushed at the gateway.

Not a shot was fired, as they entered. Scrambling over the remains of
the two barricades, the enemy pour