After some days, the breastwork on the Irish side was set on fire by the continued assault of shot and grenades.
The wattles of which it was composed, dried by the hot weather, were soon in a blaze, and, under cover of the flames and smoke, the English ran forward the great beams they had prepared in readiness, and threw them across the gap in the bridge.
The fire from all the batteries on the English side was directed against the burning breastwork, while the grenadiers hastened to lay planks across the beams to complete the bridge.

The work was well-nigh done when an Irish sergeant and ten men, all clad in armour, leaped through the flames of the breastwork, and began to hew with their axes at the beams and planks.
For a moment, the British were paralysed at the daring action.

Then the batteries and musketry fire again opened, a storm of shot and bullets swept across the bridge, and the whole of the gallant fellows fell dead; but in a moment another party, similarly armed, dashed through the flames and took their places.
Regardless of the fire they whirled their axes.

Nine fell, but the last two gave the final stroke to the beams.

The bridge fell with a crash into the river below, and the two survivors recrossed the breastwork and joined their friends within, amid the wild enthusiasm of the defenders; an enthusiasm in which even the baffled assailants joined, for the British grenadiers gave a cheer, in token of their admiration at the gallantry and devotion of the deed.
In all history, there is no record of a more gallant action than this, performed by two sergeants and twenty men, who thus encountered almost certain death to maintain their post.