eing relieved. On the contrary,
our gallant little army, taking example from their chief, exhibited the
most undaunted resolution, and hourly gave proof of their attachment to
the noble general who had so often led them on to victory in the field.
One man there is, and one only, who may well tremble at the result.
Often do I think of him and what his fate will be if the place is taken
by assault. Yet, strange to say, he appears as cool and fearless as the
rest. On this night the enemy burnt several transports with red-hot
shot and sunk two others from a battery on the left. The inhabitants
who still remained in the town, and other non-combatants, were now
living in holes under the cliffs or along the shore by the river side.
Even there, however, they were not safe, the shot finding them out in
their places of refuge and destroying numbers of them. My great anxiety
was for Colonel Carlyon. He was recovering from his wounds, but I
dreaded lest a stray shot or shell might penetrate the hospital, and
that he might share the fate of so many of our own people. I sent him a
message whenever I had an opportunity, and received many kind
expressions from him in return.

12th.--At eight o'clock this morning the enemy sunk one of the
fire-ships from a fresh battery thrown up during the night. All day a
hot fire was kept up from it which almost completed the destruction of
the shipping intended for the defence of the town against an attack by
sea.

At nine o'clock the chief officer of artillery waited on the commodore
with a message from Lord Cornwallis, requesting that the lieutenants of
the navy with their men should move on from the right into the hornwork
on the left, which the crews of the transports had quitted in
consequence of the heavy fire to which it was exposed. It was every
instant expected that the enemy would storm the works. Hearing this, I
immediately volunteered to work this battery, and set off for it
accordingly, with a midshipman and thirty-six seamen, it being
understood that I was to be relieved in eight hours by the first
lieutenant. In fifty-two minutes after my arrival in the hornwork the
enemy silenced the three left guns by closing the embrasures, and
shortly afterwards they dismounted a twelve-pounder, knocked off the
muzzles of two eighteens, and for the last hour and a half of the time I
had undertaken to hold the post left me with one eighteen-pounder.
Although even a part of its muzzle a