Page:Calcutta, Past and Present.djvu/98

 came into the line of the fire of their own guns, and, before the firing could be stopped, several men had been killed and the whole column thrown into confusion. By this time the fog was beginning to lighten, and, before the troops could be re-formed and led to the attack of a barricade at the end of the causeway, they were suddenly swept by a deadly fire from two heavy guns, which, mounted in a small bastion in the lines along the Ditch, had been unsuspected in the darkness.

It was impossible to assault the barricade in the face of this fire, and the column hastily resumed the march beside the Ditch, making for the next causeway—that which carried the road which, leading to the main gate of the old Fort, was known successively as the Avenue and the Great Bungalow Road before it took its present name of Bow Bazar Street. The position was now one of great peril: the country to be crossed was a succession of rice-fields, dry and cracked at that season of the year, and divided by innumerable little banks over which the guns had to be dragged. The enemy's guns continued to fire on the column, which as it advanced came into range of two other guns, mounted in a similar position at the other causeway, while the Mogul cavalry, emboldened by seeing the weakness of