partly because the native workmen ran away, and partly because of
the bad feeling prevalent in the motley force which formed his
garrison.[25] The most fatal defect of all was the want of a
military engineer. The person who held that position had been sent
from France. He was a master mason, and had no knowledge of
engineering. It had been the same story in Calcutta. Drake's two
engineers had been a subaltern in the military and a young
covenanted servant. Renault had to supervise the fortifications
himself.

"I commenced to pull down the church and the house
of the Jesuit fathers, situated on the edge of the Ditch, also
all the houses of private persons which masked the entire
north curtain. The wood taken from the ruins of these
served to construct a barrier extending from bastion to
bastion and supporting this same north curtain, which
seemed ready to fall to pieces from old age."

This barrier was placed four feet outside the wall, the intervening
space being filled in with earth.

"Also in front of Porte Royale" (i.e. outside the gate in
the avenue), "the weakest side of the Fort, I placed a battery
of 3 guns, and worked hard at clearing out and enlarging
the Ditch, but there was no time to make it of any use as a
defence. A warehouse on which I put bales of _gunny_[26] to
prevent cannon balls from breaking in the vaults of the roof,
served it as a casemate."

The east or river curtain was left alone. The French were, in fact,