THE CANNONADE STILL MAINTAINED. 413 teiy refused to confront the fire, and thereupon chap. a number of men volunteered to unload the _1 ' waggon at the place where it stood, and carry up its freight to the magazine. This they hastened to do ; and the powder they had brought up was already collected in the midst of them, and in readiness to be stowed away in the magazine, when a shell came into the heap. A voice cried out, ' The fuse is burning ! ' In perhaps twenty seconds, perhaps in ten, perhaps one, the fire would But instantly, and, as the narrator says, ' with one spring,' Captain Peel darted upon the live shell, and threw it over the parapet. The shell burst about four yards from his hands with- out hurting any one.* Since the silencing of their fire on the 17th of cannonade " . . of the lyth October, the irench had been not only repairing October, the havoc made in their works, but establishing new, powerful batteries ; and as it was known that, on the morning of the 19th, they would be in a condition to reopen their fire with largely in- creased means, the hour of trial was looked for- ward to with great interest by the Allies. Indeed it may be said that, notwithstanding the adoption and continual prosecution of the plan for carrying forward regular approaches, there was a revival of the hope which had animated the assailants at the opening of the first cannonade. Men trusted
- Captain Lnsliington to Atlmiral Dundas, 23d OctoTier 1S54.
On the IStli there fell, in the sailors' batteries, Lieutenant Greathead. He was one of the splendid body of officers belong- h'^ to the Britannia, our flag-ship.
