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5th division were to attack the tow on the south side, while the third division, to which I was attached, with their ladders were to scale the citadel, and the rest were to assault the grand breach. “I procured a soldier's jacket, a firelock, sixty round of ball cartridges, and was on the right of my company.
"But, before I proceed, I will give you some information which I have since obtained, to show you where, and to what, we were going! The governor is allowed to be one of the best engineers in the French service, and he has so proved himself; though our fire was continued at the breach, he had pieces of wood fastened into the ground, the sword blades and bayonets fixed to them, slanting outwards; behind this a chevaux de frieze was chained at both ends across the breach; the beam of it about a foot square, with points on all sides projecting about a yard from the centre, and behind that was a trench four feet wide and four deep. Covering all these, soldiers were planted eight deep, the two first ranks to fire as fast as they could, and those behind to load for them. Thus prepared, he told the men, “if they stuck to their posts, all the troops in the world could not enter." Trenches were also dug about fifty yards round the breach in case we did get in! In short the officers say that no place has been defended with so much science and resolution in our times.
"On the march all was silent, except that our cannon kept up their fire at the breaches, till we got within a quarter of a mile of the town, when
