They wavered a little.

At the same instant the new mine--which was to have been sprung between the ravelin and the gate, but which had been secretly countermined by the townspeople, exploded with a horrible concussion, at a moment least expected by the besiegers.
Five hundred royalists were blown into the air.

Ortiz, a Spanish captain of engineers, who had been inspecting the excavations, was thrown up bodily from the subterranean depth.

He fell back again instantly into the same cavern, and was buried by the returning shower of earth which had spouted from the mine.

Forty-five years afterwards, in digging for the foundations of a new wall, his skeleton was found.