Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/442

418 third crochet, which extended to the right from the head of this zig-zag across the ridge of the glacis: they threw few mortars during the night, but mostly into the works; their cannon slackened likewise the ensuing day, which was the 22d, and especially from Lally's battery, in which most of the embrasures ware blinded; nevertheless, the few employed were very effectual, for the repeated repairs, which had been made in the demi and north-east bastions, rendered the substituted merlons so weak that they crumbled to every shot: a twelve-pounder was disabled on the north ravelin by a shell, three Europeans and a Sepoy were killed, and seven with nine Sepoys wounded. In the night the enemy pushed on the sap of the fourth zig-zag 20 yards beyond their third crochet, and having made a small return or shoulder to the left, continued it from hence quite up to the salient angle of the covered way, and fixed some gabions on the crest of the glacis on the right hand of this angle; the contest was now brought very near the walls, and was disputed without intermission: the whole progress of the fourth zig-zag was exposed to the fire of the stockade of palmyra trees which the garrison had planted across the east side of the glacis to the surf, and from this stockade the guard kept up a constant fire of musketry on the enemy's workmen, as did another guard from the salient angle of the glacis; and parties of grenadiers were sent out every hour along the beach beyond the stockade to fire upon the third crochet, and all the sap advanced beyond it; cannon, mortars, and musketry, were likewise fired throughout the night from every part that bore upon their work; but could not stop it, for the enemy had increased the number both of their workmen and guards; they likewise finished their battery at the end of their third zig-zag, which shouldered on their second crochet, and opened it the next morning, which was the 23d, with four guns; but it was so ill constructed, that only one of the guns could be brought to bear upon the north ravelin, which it was intended to batter. The Lorrain battery remained closed, but the hospital, the burying-ground, and Lally's, with the mortars as before, continued a slackening fire, the cannon only in the day, but the mortars through the night likewise. The ammunition of both