Coffers full of powder, to an enormous amount, were then placed in every direction across the floor, the train was laid, and Parma informed that all was ready.

Alexander, having already arrayed the troops destined for the assault, then proceeded in person to the mouth of the shaft, and gave orders to spring the mine.

The explosion was prodigious; a part of the tower fell with the concussion, and the moat was choked with heaps of rubbish.

The assailants sprang across the passage thus afforded, and mastered the ruined portion of the fort.

They were met in the breach, however, by the unflinching defenders of the city, and, after a fierce combat of some hours, were obliged to retire; remaining masters, however, of the moat, and of the ruined portion of the ravelin.