Derry and Limerick
through the anxious night fire-balls, bombs, and "carcasses" rained upon the city, for William had at last decided to deliver the assault.
The breach was now twelve yards wide in the wall near St. John's Gate, and over the Black Battery. On the 27th of August all the Grenadiers in the army, over 500 strong, were marched into the advanced trenches: the regiments of Douglas, Stuart, Meath, Lisburn, and the Brandenburghers were formed up behind: on the right, was a battalion of Blue Dutch: on the left, the Danes. General Douglas commanded.
The forenoon was spent in getting the troops on both sides into position, and it was half-past three when, as William took his stand at Cromwell's Fort to witness the capture of the city, the hush of that sweltering summer's day was broken by the booming of three guns from the camp. Upon the signal, the waiting Grenadiers—strange figures in their uniforms of piebald yellow and red, their cope-crowned, furred caps, with jangling bells hanging from their belts—leapt from the trenches, and ran towards the counterscarp, firing their pieces and throwing their newfangled missiles. They were greeted with a deadly fusillade from the walls, but pushed steadily on: drove the Irish from the counterscarp, and entered the breach pell-mell with
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