rely pounded from the Mori bastion and Kishenganj, but when the
guns got into full play the fire from the former grew gradually weaker
and weaker, till it was completely overpowered. Nos. 2 and 4 Batteries,
being nearer to the walls, suffered much from the enemy, and the losses
were very severe both among the artillery and the covering and working
bodies of infantry.

_September 11_.--At length, on September 11, the whole of our batteries
opened fire simultaneously on the city bastions and walls. The Kashmir
bastion was soon silenced, the ramparts and adjacent curtains knocked to
fragments, and a large breach opened in the walls. On the extreme left,
at the Custom-House, our battery, as before related, was only 180 yards
from the city, and the crushing fire from this, when in full play,
smashed to pieces the Water bastion, overturned the guns, and made a
breach in the curtain so wide and practicable that it could be ascended
with ease.

Fifty guns and mortars were now pouring shot and shell without a
moment's interval on the doomed city. The din and roar were deafening;
day and night salvos of artillery were heard, roll following roll in
endless succession, and striking terror in the hearts of those who knew
and felt that the day of retribution was at hand.

Still, though their batteries on the bastions had been wellnigh
silenced, the rebels stuck well to their field-guns in the open space
before the walls; they sent a storm of rockets from one of the martello
towers, and fired a stream of musketry from the ramparts and advanced
trenches. Kishenganj, too, made its voice heard, harassing our right and
sweeping the Sabzi Mandi and Hindoo Rao's with its incessant fire.

During the bombardment our casualties amounted to nearly 350 men,
the enemy causing great loss at No. 2 Battery through the fire of a
3-pounder served from a hole broken in the curtain-wall. This gun was
admirably directed, and could not be silenced notwithstanding all our
efforts. One officer, looking over the parapet to see the effect of his
fire, was struck by a shot from the "hole in the wall," his head being
taken completely off, the mutilated trunk falling back amongst the men
at the guns--a ghastly and terrible sight, which filled us who were
present with horror.

During the whole of the bombardment portions of my regiment were on duty
in the batteries and trenches, working at the repair of the parapets and
embrasures occasionally damaged by the