Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/219

 Rh It was not until all that I have related had been done that I became aware of the doors being open of which I have already spoken, and I sent some one to shut them.

While I was firing at random, I had a glimpse of a man setting fire to the covering of the fish-press; I took deliberate aim at him with my blunderbuss, loaded as usual with swan-shot, and wounded him in several places, but not seriously.

While we were blinded and suffocated by the smoke from the burning stacks, our adversaries raised a small mound of turf and wood, behind which they intrenched themselves, and set to work with long poles to detach the slates from the roof of the north-east tower. At soon as they uncovered a portion, they applied fire to it, by means of burning straw at the end of their poles, and in this way the roof was on fire three times, and we as often extinguished it from within.

About two o'clock in the afternoon, they accomplished making a breach in the wall of this same north-east tower.

We could see them at work with iron bars, and while they were so engaged my children fired upon them; they formed a sort of rampart with a mattress on the top of a large basket, such as is used in the country for carrying peat. They knelt behind this rampart, and fired as fast as they could one after the other, without daring to show their noses.

The enemy still continued at work with their long poles and firebrands endeavoring to set the roof on fire. When the smoke had subsided a little, I hit upon a position from which I could see to take aim at their hands, as they raised them above their intrenchment to guide the poles. I fired, and I thought I hit them, but as they still persevered in their work, I began to think it probable that I had not put a sufficient charge in the piece, so when I loaded again I put in