which lay at the Old Mole, and the boom of cannon rose in the air.

Presently, from near the spot where Lieutenant Fieldsend and his
little company were posted, a shot was fired into the fortifications;
then another, and afterwards a third. Work had begun at last.

A puff, a boom in the distance, and there came screaming through the
air a big round shot, striking the ground, ploughing it up, and
covering those near with dust and dirt.

"Quite near enough, eh, sir?" George observed to his lieutenant, as
they shook the earth from their clothing. "And, by Jove, there's
another of them!" A second shot flew just overhead, to do its deadly
work on the unfortunate men who stood immediately behind. George
Fairburn's first task in the siege was to help to carry to the rear
two or three badly wounded men. On the ground lay a couple who needed
no surgeon.

As yet only a few preliminary shots had been fired into the fortress,
but the defenders were evidently quite ready with their reply, and the
order for a general attack rang out. Within a few minutes the fight
was raging in terrible fashion. From land and sea alike the shot
poured into the town; sailor and soldier joining, and often standing
side by side. As George afterwards expressed it, "any man set his hand
to any job there was to do." Sailors were to be seen on land in many
places, while not a few soldiers helped with the firing on board the
ships.

All that long morning, however, George Fairburn worked at the gun to
which he had been assigned. Black with smoke, powder, dust,