Cannon, in order to make a Breach; my self as a Probationer being twice
put upon the forlorn Hope to facilitate that difficult Piece of Service.
Nor was it long before such a Breach was effected, as was esteem'd
practicable, and therefore very soon after it was ordered to be
attack'd.

The Disposition for the Attack was thus ordered; two Serjeants with
twenty Grenadiers, a Captain with fifty Men, my self one of the Number;
then a Party carrying Wool Sacks, and after them two Captains with one
Hundred Men more; the Soldiers in the Trenches to be ready to sustain
them, as Occasion should require.

The Signal being given, we left our Trenches accordingly, having about
one Hundred Yards to run, before we could reach the Breach, which we
mounted with some Difficulty and Loss; all our Batteries firing at the
same instant to keep our Action in countenance, and favour our Design.
When we were in Possession of the Bastion, the Enemy fir'd most
furiously upon us with their small Cannon through a thin brick Wall, by
which, and their hand Grenadoes, we lost more Men than we did in the
Attack it self.

But well had it been had our ill Fortune stopp'd there; for as if
Disaster must needs be the Concomitant of Success, we soon lost what we
had thus gotten, by a small, but very odd Accident. Not being furnished
with such Scoopes as our Enemies made use of, in tossing their hand
Grenadoes some distance off, one of our own Soldiers aiming to throw one
over the Wall into the Counterscarp among the Enemy, it so happen'd that
he unfortunately miss'd his Aim, and the Grenade fell down again on our
side the Wall, very near the Person who fir'd it. He starting back to
save himself, and some others who saw it fall, doing the like, those who