The troops, too, were all employed; and under Charlie's
superintendence, a wondrous change was soon effected. The spot chosen
was levelled, a strong earthwork was erected round it, and then the
surrounding ground was removed. This was a work of immense labour, the
ground consisting first of a layer of soil, then of debris which had
fallen from the face of the rock above, stones and boulders, to the
depth of some fifteen feet, under which was the solid earth.
The slope resembled an anthill. The soldiers and able-bodied men broke
up the boulders and rock with sledgehammers; or, when necessary, with
powder, and blasted the rock, when needed. The women and children
carried away the fragments in baskets. The work lasted for a
fortnight, at the end of which a position of an almost impregnable
nature was formed. At the foot of the earthworks protecting the guns,
both at the face and sides, the ground, composed of great boulders and
stones, sloped steeply out, forming a bank fifteen feet deep. At its
foot, again, the solid rock was blasted away, so as to form a deep
chasm, thirty feet wide and ten feet high, round the foot of the fort.
For a hundred yards on each side, the earth and stones had been
entirely removed down to the solid rock.
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