ctators of this dreadful
scene; but what can eight or ten men a-breast do against a legion,
posted aloft, and protected by walls, bastions, &c., and where every
possible engine is in requisition for their destruction? Thus exposed,
there was never any real chance of success. The whole circumference of
the bastion, if lined with men, would not have contained more than
fifteen or twenty men a-breast; and the whole means of the fort were
levelled on this small space, to their certain defeat and destruction.
All that was in the power of mortal man to do was done, but all our
efforts were in vain.

The storming party was again ordered for the following day. I suffered
an excruciating headache, but said nothing of the badness of my wound,
which at that time bore a most frightful appearance, resolved to die
rather than give up my past honour. I assured my doctors that I was
well, and felt quite adequate to take my station, and entreated that
they would not stand between me and glory. At last they consented, and I
made the most of the short period between that and the storm, in
supplicating the Divine protection, and in penning a letter to my only
relation, on account of arranging my little affairs. I had made up my
mind that I could not, in all human probability, escape a third time;
but He alone who created life can destroy it. In the evening I left my
tent, to seek in solitude that consolation for my troubled bosom which
the drunken and tumultuous riot of a camp could but ill afford. The
captain of our company, under whose care I had been brought up, was one
of the best and most pious of men. In gratitude I mention the name of
Captain Effingham Lindsay, now colonel on the half-pay of the 22nd
regiment of Foot. To this beloved individual I am indebted for having
implanted in my bosom, in early youth, those religious principles and
feelings by which I have ever since endeavoured to direct my conduct,
and from which, in the hour of affliction and of peril, I have ever
derived inexpressible comfort. It was with the view of gaining
consolation and support from private meditation and prayer, that I now
retired from the riotous company of my companions in arms, the evening
previous to my leading, for the third time, the forlorn hope at
Bhurtpore. Scarcely had I gone beyond the discordant sound of revelry,
and begun to muse upon the subjects that were ever uppermost in my
mind, viz., the possibility of my ever returning to my native