Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/428

sea: to the westward, the old bastion had two guns clear of the demi bastion, which supplied the defence on this side by four guns in the flank and seven in its northern face. The two new bastions communicated with each other by a broad faussebray that passed along the foot of the old rampart and bastions; this faussebray was defended by a stout parapet seven feet high, which adjoined to the flanks of the new bastions. The ditch on this front was dry, because the ground here was seven feet higher than the level of the canal which supplied the ditches to the west and south: but a cuvette or trench, seven feet deep and 25 feet broad, was dug the whole length of the ditch, which before the faussebray was 180 feet wide, and before the bastions, ninety. The covered way of this front was broad and well palisaded, and contained between the two bastions a large ravelin capable of 18 guns, nine in each of its faces. The glacis was excellent, and little was wanting to complete the defences on this side, excepting mines, which the want of time and bricklayers had not allowed. The western face had likewise its covered-way palisaded, and glacis, and contained three ravelins, of which that in the middle was the largest. The eastern face extended along the beach of the sea within twenty yards of the surf; but ships could not approach near enough to batter it with any effect; and no guns could be brought to bear upon it by land. Before the sea gate, which stands in the middle of the curtain, was a battery of 13 guns; fifty yards on the right of this battery was a platform of old standing, with 14 guns to return salutes, which had hitherto been left without a parapet: the original curtain, although nothing more than a brick wall four feet thick, had never been strengthened; but a trench, six feet deep and 10 wide had lately been dug before it; and a ditch, with palisadoes, was intended to have been carried round the battery and the platform, but had not been executed at either. The only danger on this side was from a sudden assault or surprize, which could rarely come by boats landing unawares across the surf; but always, and with ease, by a body of men passing on the edge of it by either of the bastions at the extremities; to prevent which, a row of anchors, backed by palisades, and