being piled on the
others, raising them to the height of ten feet and sheltering the men
behind completely from the fire from the walls.

"They will make a breach now," Mr. Goodenough said. "We must prepare to
receive them inside."

The populace were at once set to work digging holes and securely
planting the beams already prepared in a semicircle a hundred feet
across, behind the wall facing the battery. The beams when fixed
projected eight feet above the ground, the spaces between being filled
with bamboos twisted in and out between them. Earth was thrown up behind
to the height of four foot for the defenders to stand upon. The space
between the stockade and the wall was filled with sharp pointed bamboos
and stakes stuck firmly in the ground with their points projecting
outwards. All day the townspeople labored at these defenses, while the
wall crumbled fast under the fire of the Dahomey artillery, every shot
of which, at so short a distance, struck it heavily. By five in the
afternoon a great gap, fifty feet wide, was made in the walls, and the
army of Dahomey again gathered for the assault. Mr. Goodenough with two
of the Houssas took his place on the wall on one side of the gap, Frank
with the other two faced him across the chasm. A large number of the
Abeokuta warriors also lined the walls, while the rest gathered on the
stockade.

With the usual tumult of drumming and yells the Dahomans rushed to
the assault. The fire from the walls did not check the onset in the
slightest, and with yells of anticipated victory they swarmed over the
breach. A cry of astonishment broke from them as they saw the formidable
defense within, the fire of whose defenders was concentrated upon them.
Then, with scarce a pause, they leaped down and strove to remove the
obstructions. Regardless of the fire poured upon them they hewed away
at the sharp stakes, or strove to pull them up with their hands. The
riflemen on the walls directed their fire now exclusively upon the
leaders of the column, the breech loaders doing immense execution, and
soon the Dahomans in their efforts to advance had to climb over lines of
dead in their front. For half an hour the struggle continued, and then
the Dahomans lost heart and retired, leaving fifteen hundred of their
number piled deep in the space between the breach and the stockade.

"This is horrible work," Frank said when he rejoined Mr. Goodenough.

"Horrible, Frank; but there is at least the conso