The French marshal determined not to seek his enemy on his chosen ground, till he should have taken Saguntum and brought up his siege-train to the front. The former condition he thought would not prove difficult to accomplish. A survey of the fortress revealed its extremely irregular and incomplete state of defence. Though the cliffs were in all parts steep and in some places inaccessible, many sections of the works above them were obviously unfinished and very weak. After a close reconnaissance by his engineer officers had been made, Suchet determined that it would be worth while to try an attempt at escalade on some of the most defective points, without waiting for the arrival of the siege-train. He set his sappers and carpenters to work to make sixty ladders, which were ready in full number on the third day. The front chosen for the assault was in the _enceinte_ immediately overhanging the town of Murviedro, where two ancient gaps in the wall were clearly visible; the new work was not half finished, and a low structure, roughly completed with beams laid above the regular foundations, was all that blocked the openings. The masons of the garrison were heard at night, working hard to raise the height of the stone wall which was to replace the temporary wooden parapets. There being no artillery available, they could not be hindered in their building: but it did not seem to advance very rapidly. Suchet set apart for the actual escalade two columns, each composed of 300 volunteers from Habert’s division: they were to be supported by a reserve of similar strength under Colonel Gudin, which was formed up, completely under cover, within the streets of Murviedro. At midnight on September 27th-28th the stormers pushed forward under cover of the darkness, and in small successive parties, into a large Roman cistern above the ruined theatre, which was ‘dead ground,’ and not exposed to fire from any part of the ramparts. Here they were only 120 yards from the two breaches. Meanwhile, as a diversion, six Italian companies from Palombini’s division were ordered to make a noisy demonstration against the distant part of the defences which lay under the tower of San Pedro[13]. General Habert was to have 2,000 men more under arms, ready to support the assailing column. [13] The complete orders for the attack may be read in the first _Pièce justificative_ in Belmas’s history of the siege, pp. 115-17 of vol. iv of his elaborate work.