all the Swedish batteries, and under cover of the smoke the Green
Brigade advanced to the assault. From the circle of the walls a
cloud of smoke and fire broke out from cannon and arquebus, muskets,
and wall pieces. Sir John Hepburn and Colonel Lumsden, side by
side, led on their regiments against the Guben gate; both carried
petards.

In spite of the tremendous fire poured upon them from the wall they
reached the gate, and the two colonels fixed the petards to it and
retired a few paces. In a minute there was a tremendous explosion,
and the gate fell scattered in fragments. Then the Scottish pikemen
rushed forward. As they did so there was a roar of cannon, and
a storm of bullets ploughed lanes through the close ranks of the
pikemen, for the Imperialists, expecting the attack, had placed
cannon, loaded to the muzzle with bullets, behind the gates.

Munro's regiment now leapt into the moat, waded across, and planting
their ladders under a murderous fire, stormed the works flanking
the gate, and then joined their comrades, who were striving to
make an entrance. Hepburn, leading on the pikemen, was hit on the
knee, where he had in a former battle been badly wounded.

"Go on, bully Munro," he said jocularly to his old schoolfellow,
"for I am wounded."

A major who advanced to take his place at the head of the regiment
was shot dead, and so terrible was the fire that even the pikemen
of Hepburn's regiment wavered for a moment; but Munro and Lumsden,
with their vizors down and half pikes in their hands, cheered on
their men, and, side by side, led the way.