force which, since the morning, had held obstinately that point of vantage. And this, although the British battery, which was still in position near the cliff, mowed lanes in the assaulting column; because those gunners were exposed to a heavier cannonade, and from a greater elevation. Three o’clock found the wood above the burning house carried by the French; and the sharp ping of rifles filled it from end to end, as the fight grew on eastward like a rising tide, superior force prevailing steadily over stubborn endurance.
His right now gaining ground, and his centre secure, La Roche prepared to execute the flank movement on the left for which the Americans were eager, to avenge their early repulse. The rising water in the basin would now enable at least the smaller vessels to co-operate with the advance by land along the harbour-side road eastwards. Accordingly, the twenty thousand Americans in line, together with five thousand French cavalry of the reserve, received orders to push forward and turn the English right flank, while the ten thousand American reserve came forward to occupy Whitegate and maintain communications. It was now between four and five o’clock, and the attention of the British right wing was turning irresistibly to the crisis at Trabolgan, where the firing was becoming more furious every minute, the peppering of the rifles in the wood being overpowered by the booming of the big guns and the crackling explosions of the mitrailleuses. Suddenly they were surprised by a galling fire from a long fringe of trees on the right rear, and then by the sight of the Stars and Bars waving amid the smoke along their turned flank. The mischief was difficult to avoid; Lord Redhill was undermanned for his battlefield, and could hardly avoid one danger without running into another. Either he must have continued to give way on the left and centre, or by reinforcing them he must have exposed his right flank, as had now happened. The order flashed to the reserve,
