162 THE APRIL BOMBAKIiMENT. chap. From even the most distant extremity of the VI . __ blazing arc the batteries that armed the right face of his Great Eedan thundered raging against the small prey ; and it was well for our ' advanced ' No. VII.' that a hair's-breadth of uncorrected error in the nicety of ' gun elevation ' caused the missiles of war tearing down from the further- most Work to fly howling and screaming in vain close over the heads of our people. Nowhere else did the enemy seem to be wasting his ordnance-power. From the opposite extremity of the arc, that is, from the Flagstaff Bastion (which had dealt, as we saw, the first blow), the big round-shot again and again came tearing in through the parapet of Oldershaw's little battery ; whilst besides, in the north it was powerfully, directly confronted, and confronted, as we have seen, at close quarters ; since from not only the Upper and the Lower Garden batteries, and the rampart formed on the P^ressip, but again further east from the ranges of the Barrack Battery and its neighbouring satellites there poured in an unsparing fire, and this, too, at so close a range that for some of the 68-pounders placed high on commanding ground the firing was almost 'point- ' blank.' On the whole, we can say that the little advanced No. VII. with its four 32-pounder pieces, of which two had now been disabled, was from time to time kept under fire by not less than thirty great guns*
- General Simpson writes : ' At least 30 guns ' ; and the
italics are his.
