d its advantageous locality
suggested to Montgomery the idea of making it the headquarters of his
sharpshooters. Morgan was ordered in consequence to place there a picked
detachment of riflemen. This he put under the command of Singleton, who
moved thither a couple of days after his interview with Zulma. From the
high cupola of the Intendant's Palace, he kept up a regular fire on the
exposed points of the garrison. The sentries along the walls were picked
off, one after another; whenever a reconnoitring party appeared above
the stockades, they were at once driven under cover, and even the
workers of the barbette guns were often frightened away from their
pieces. Whenever, as frequently happened, a few mortars were pointed on
the town from the environs of the Palace, the sharp fusillade which
accompanied them from the embrasures of the cupola, produced the
liveliest commotion within the walls, causing the alarm bells to sound
and sending battalion upon battalion of militia to the rescue. The
Americans were very much encouraged by this sign of success, imagining
that they had discovered a strong strategic point. The British were
proportionately vexed, and Carleton determined on getting rid of the
annoyance. For that purpose he brought a battery of nine pounders to
bear upon the building. When Cary Singleton saw it mounted, he smelt
mischief.

"We will be knocked off our pins, boys," he said, "but before we drop
let every man of you bring down his man."

The contest was keen and animated. The riflemen of Virginia poured
volley after volley against the artillerists, while the latter hurled
their solid balls against the massive masonry. At first they fired low,
battering in doors, splintering wood-work, unhinging shutters, and
ploughing the floors. The old walls of the town were shrouded in clouds
of white smoke. The Palace appeared like a ring of fire from the red
barrels of the riflemen. At length, one of the British militia officers
stepped forward and pointed a nine-pounder direct on the cupola.

Cary spied the movement and exclaimed:

"This is our last chance. Fire!"

Loud and clear boomed the roar of that fatal cannon shot amid the rattle
of musketry. There was a crash, a shivering of timbers, and then a heavy
fall. When the smoke cleared away, the Intendant's Palace was a heap of
ruins. The cupola had entirely disappeared. Wounded men crept out of the
debris as well as they could, some limping, some holding a bro