Thus confident of support, the party, after traversing
the drawbridge with fixed bayonets, inclined to the right,
and following the winding of the ditch by which it was
surrounded, made the semi-circuit of the rampart until
they gained the immediate centre of the rear, and in a
direct line with the bomb-proof. Here their mode of
advance was altered, to guard more effectually against
the enemy with whom they might possibly have to contend.
The front and rear ranks of the company, consisting in
all of ninety men, were so placed as to leave space in
the event of attack, of a portion of each wheeling inwards
so as to present in an instant three equal faces of a
square. As the rear was sufficiently covered by the
cannon of the fort to defeat any attempt to turn their
flanks, the manoeuvre was one that enabled them to present
a fuller front in whatever other quarter they might be
attacked; and had this additional advantage, that in the
advance by single files a narrower front was given to
the aim of the Indians, who, unless they fired in an
oblique direction, could only, of necessity, bring down
two men (the leading files) at a time.

In this order, and anxiously overlooked by their comrades,
whose eyes alone peered from above the surface of the
rampart on which they lay prostrate, the detachment
crossed the common; one rank headed by Captain Erskine,
the other by Lieutenant Johnstone. They had now approached
within a few yards of the unfortunate victim, when Captain
Erskine commanded a halt of his party; and two files were