THE APRIL BOMBARDMENT. 159 once from the order not to fire without mantlets; chap. VI and, the gunners that ( )ldershaw saw now await- . ing his orders were men angry indeed, yet re- joicing in the sudden escape from delay, men devoutly intent on a purpose, men elate with the sense of having vengeance — swift vengeance — in their own, in their very own hands, men hardly moving their lips except for some such brief utterance as, 'Now then we'll give it 'em,' but looking intently to their chief for the pregnant monosyllable, ' Load ! ' and almost anticipating his word of command by hastening to strip off their coats, and — with something of truculent carefulness — rolling up, every man, his shirt- sleeves, to bare the arms for hard work. The embrasures stript of their mantlets, and not yet wrapped in dense clouds of smoke, invited the enemy's sharpshooters ; and at first, during interval moments, the malicious ' ping-ping ' of the rifle-balls too often carrying death was from time to time catching the ear; but soon, this sharp twang either ceased, or else was drowned, turned into nothingness by the masterful roar of great guns. It was well, I believe, on the whole that the mantlets had all disappeared ; for in so hot a fight of artillery as the one now beginning, they would not have long kept their places, and must soon have been found taking part with the enemy's gunners by helping them to choke our embrasures, and to fill them with cumbersome wrecks. Captain Oldershaw now found himself engaged
