and
then, having satisfied myself as well as I could that our ammunition had
been kept dry and in serviceable condition, I led the rest of my party
up the steep, slippery face of the low cliffs beyond the beach. A
breathless scramble of some three or four minutes carried us to the top;
and all that remained was for us to follow the edge of the cliff to the
eastward, when we should in due time find ourselves at the battery which
was the primary object of our attack.

The result of our procedure amply demonstrated the wisdom of the
skipper's arrangements; for when we reached the battery--which we did
rather sooner than I had expected--we found it absolutely unguarded at
the rear, the sentinels, three in number, being so posted as to watch
the harbour entrance only. Where the rest of the garrison were we could
not at the moment discover, but, feeling certain that they were
somewhere close at hand, it became necessary to proceed with the utmost
caution; I therefore formed up my little band under the shelter and in
the deep shadow of a projecting angle, and, enjoining upon them the most
absolute silence, entered the battery alone for the purpose of
reconnoitring.

I gained the inside without difficulty--the gate having been carelessly
left unfastened--and at once found myself in a semicircular court-yard
formed by the gun platform of the battery and the sod revetment which
surrounded it. The platform was about eight feet high, and was
apparently case-mated, for immediately in front of me, as I entered, was
a door and two windows, through the latter of which streamed into the
blackness of the night the feeble rays of a barrack lantern. Pyramidal
piles of round shot were stacked here and there about the gravelled
court-yard; and upon approaching one of these and passing my hand over
the shot, I came to the conclusion that the five guns which I dimly made
out as shapeless masses of blackness upon the platform were thirty-two
pounders. The three sentries, wrapped in their greatcoats, stood
motionless, one in the centre and one at each extremity of the platform,
facing to seaward, but I judged from their listless attitudes that they
were anything but on the alert. Access to the platform was obtained by
two broad flights of stone steps, one at either extremity.

It was the work of but two or three minutes for me to ascertain these
particulars, having done which I returned to my men, gave them most
careful instructions ho