The enemy, this time, prepared to attack by daylight, and early in the
morning the whole army of the nizam marched to the assault. Heedless
of the fire of the castle, they formed up in a long line of heavy
masses, along the slope. One huge column moved forward against the
main breach, two advanced obliquely towards the great gaps in the
walls on either side. The latter columns were each headed by bodies of
French troops.
In vain the guns of the fort, aided by those of the battery on the
hill, swept them. The columns advanced without a check until they
entered the breaches. Then a line of fire swept along the crest of the
barricade from end to end, and the cannon of the besieged roared out.
Pressed by the mass from behind, the columns advanced, torn and rent
by the fire, and at last gained the foot of the barricade.
Here, those in front strove desperately to climb up the great mound of
rubbish, while those behind covered them with a storm of bullets aimed
at its summit. More than once the troops of the rajah, rushing down
the embankment, drove back the struggling masses, but so heavily did
they suffer from the fire, when they thus exposed themselves, that
Charlie forbade them to repeat the attempt.
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