The head of the column had scarcely gained the lip of the breach when it was raked by the simultaneous discharge of these two guns, which absolutely exterminated the knot of men at its head. At the same time an explosion took place lower down, from some powder-bags which the enemy had left among the débris and fired by means of a train. The impetus of the column was checked, and it was some little time before more men fought their way up to the summit: a second discharge from the two flanking guns made havoc of these, and shut in by the cuts, upon a space of about 100 feet wide, with the impracticable descent into the town in front, the assailants came to a stand again. The only way out of the difficulty was to cross the cuts, and storm the parapets behind them. This was done at both ends: on the one side a small party of the 88th, throwing down their muskets, so as to have hands to climb with, scrambled over the gap and slew with their bayonets the gunners at the left-hand gun, before they could fire a third round: they were followed by many men of the 5th, and a footing was gained on the ramparts behind the obstacle[188]. On the right flank Major Wylde, the brigade-major of Mackinnon’s brigade, found a few planks which the French had been using to bridge the cut before the storm, and which they had thrown down but neglected to remove. These were relaid in haste, and a mass of men of the 45th rushed across them under a dreadful fire, and forced the right-hand retrenchment. The garrison, giving way at both ends, fired a mine prepared under a postern of the upper wall as they retired[189]. This produced an explosion much more deadly than the one at the commencement of the storm; it slew among others General Mackinnon, the senior brigadier of the 3rd Division, whose body was found thrown some distance away and much blackened with powder. [188] For a lively account of this exploit see Grattan’s _With the Connaught Rangers_, p. 154. [189] Many narratives speak of General Mackinnon as being killed by the first explosion, and others (including Wellington’s dispatch) call the second explosion that of an expense magazine fired by accident. Barrié’s report, however, settles the fact that it was a regular mine: and for Mackinnon’s death _after_ the storming of the cuts I follow the narrative by an eye-witness appended at the end of the general’s diary.