and in that manner to proceed across the plain towards the breach. Long before this period all was confusion. The enemy received the storming-party with a heavy fire of musketry and of grape from three guns in the flank of a circular bastion next to the breach; nevertheless, some of the men, headed by their officers, succeeded in getting across the ditch, the water in which was breast-high, and a few ascended the breach to within a short distance of the top; but their number was too small to admit of their attempting to storm the enemy's guns.
In the meantime Major Hawkes, with the right column, had succeeded in driving the enemy from their advanced guns: and, after spiking them, was on his return to support the centre; while Colonel Ryan, with the left, had compelled the enemy to quit their post in that direction, but was prevented by the intervention of a deep drain from pursuing his success. Colonel Maitland, whatever might have been his errors or misfortunes, nobly supported the character of the British soldier, and never relaxed in his exertions to bring his men forward till he fell mortally wounded. The greater part of the troops either stopped, or went back to the battery as soon as they got to the water. The few devoted men who had ascended the breach, being unsupported, were compelled to retire; and this ill-judged and unfortunate attempt against Bhurtpore ended in exposing the British arms to the contempt of the enemy. The loss of the English was heavy, and among the killed and wounded was an unusual proportion of officers.
On the day succeeding this disastrous failure, the enemy began to repair the breach through which the English had hoped to pass to conquest. The next effort against the place, it was resolved, should be directed towards a part of the wall a little to the right of the former point of attack. Batteries were accordingly erected, and two twenty-four-pounders, ten eighteen-pounders, seven twelve-pounders, and eight mortars, opened a destructive fire on the 16th of January. Part of the rampart of the
