opened their glittering ranks to the right and left and made apparent
the serried battalions of infantry and the frowning batteries of cannon.

The scene was grandly magnificent. The eye included the whole field and
glanced approvingly from the steady order of one foe to the even array
of the other. All this spoke gladness of mind and strength of heart; but
beneath the elate looks of the advancing warriors there lurked that
fierce desire for the death of their fellow-men which must ever impel
the valiant soldier.

With the general details during the progress of the siege our story has
little to do,--suffice it to say that it was a bloody and protracted
affair. The Mooltanees fought with their usual desperate valor, but they
had to cope with men who never turned their backs upon a foe when the
fiat of battle had gone forth, who scorned to yield even when greatly
outnumbered, and regarded defeat, if not actually a crime, an
imperishable disgrace; and so the strife waged fast and furious up to
the closing hours of the conflict.

The siege and train heavy ordinance of the besieging force hurled their
ponderous shot and shell against the masonry and buildings that defended
the town and citadel, destroying, crushing, and burning with terrible
effect, while the field artillery poured forth continuous discharges of
lighter projectiles of every description then in use, sweeping with
dreadful result every opposing force that appeared on the walls or other
parts of the fortification. Amid the dire confusion and heavy clouds of
smoke caused by the incessant cannonading the Infantry effected an
entrance among the advanced mounds and trenches of petty outworks, and
animated by their partial success, formed themselves simultaneously into
wedges and masses, and headed by their brave leaders rushed forward in