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476 forty killed, and upwards of a hundred were made prisoners.

On the 23rd of December the besiegers, under a heavy fire from the garrison, completed their first parallel, and on the morning of the 24th two heavy batteries opened upon the town. Other batteries were brought into play in quick succession; and during the rest of the month of December a vast quantity of powder and ball was expended: scarcely a roof in the town was left uninjured; but neither cannon-shot nor shells could make any impression on a tough mud wall, the most impenetrable of all possible defences, and which, moreover, was from fifty to sixty feet thick. A mine was, therefore, commenced on the evening of the 6th of January, 1826, in the scarp of the ditch on the northern face of the work, but unfortunately it was not sufficiently advanced by daybreak; and the engineers apprehending discovery if their operations were continued, it was prematurely exploded, and produced no material effect. A second attempt to mine was made; but those employed in it were countermined from the interior before they had entered many feet. The gallery was subsequently blown in, it having been discovered that the enemy were keeping watch in it.

On the 8th of January a shot fired by the enemy set fire to one of our tumbrils, and 20,000 lbs. weight of gunpowder was blown up. On the 14th another mine, under one of the bastions, was exploded too precipitately to produce any effect; but two more were driven into the same work; and these being sprung on the 16th, so far succeeded that, with the aid of another day's battering, the breach was reported practicable. On the 17th an immense mine was completed and charged with a vast quantity of powder in the north-east angle of the works, and the following day was fixed for the storm.

Early on the morning of the 18th of January, 1826, our storming-parties established themselves in the advanced trenches. The left breach, or that which was