the wall, or, in some instances, crashed into the upper parts of the
houses. After an hour's firing it slackened a little, and finally died
out, for the heat was tremendous.

At three o'clock there was a move again; ten of the guns were brought
forward to a point about a thousand yards from the wall, while ten others
were taken round and placed on the road, at about the same distance, so as
to command the gate. Again the fire opened, and this time more
effectually. Again the men were called to the loopholes. The greater
portion of them were armed, not with the government carbines, but with
sporting rifles, shortened so as to be carried as carbines; and although
none of the weapons were sighted for more than six hundred yards, all with
sufficient elevation could send balls far beyond that distance. Ten of the
best-armed men were told off against each battery of artillery, and a
slow, steady fire was opened. It was effective, for, with the field-
glasses, men could be seen to fall frequently at the guns, and the fire
became more hurried, but much wilder and even less accurate, than it had
hitherto been. The rest of the men, with the exception of ten told off for
special duty, were dispersed round the walls, to check the advance of the
footmen, who crept daringly to within a short distance, and kept up a
rolling fire around the village.

At five o'clock half of the men were taken off the walls, and several were
set to build a wall four feet high, in a semicircle just inside the gate,
which had been struck by several shots, and showed signs of yielding. Two
or three of the nearest huts were demolished rapidly, there being plenty
of native tools in the village, and a rough wall was constructed of the
materials; a trench five feet deep and eight feet wide was simultaneously
dug across the entrance. At six o'clock, just as the wall was finished, an
unlucky shot struck one of the doorposts, and the gate fell, dragging the