Graham, having completed the arrangements with Sir James Leith, left him to command the assault, and crossed the Urumea to the batteries of the right attack, from whence all might be distinctly seen, and orders for the fire of the batteries immediately given, according to circumstances. Sir James held it as an article of his military belief that British troops could not fail in any thing which they undertook. He now took the opinion of the chief engineer, Sir Richard Fletcher, as to the spot from whence he could best overlook and direct the desperate service of the day; the place they fixed on was upon the beach, about thirty yards in advance of the debouche from the trenches; and there, without any cover or protection whatever, they both took their stand; for it was a maxim with him that however brave the troops, and however devoted the officers, the example of those in command was, beyond every thing, essential. About eleven o’clock the advanced parties moved out of the trenches, and the enemy almost immediately exploded two mines, for the purpose of blowing down the wall to the left of the beach, along which the troops were advancing to the breach; the passage between the wall and the water was narrow, and they expected, by the fragments of masonry which would be thrown down, to obstruct the line of march. This intent failed; but about twenty men were crushed by the ruins of the wall. The garrison, as on the former assault, were perfectly prepared; and from the Mirador battery, and the battery del Principe, on the castle hill, they opened a fire of grape and shells upon the columns. The forlorn hope, consisting of an officer and thirty men, fell to a man; the front of the columns which followed were cut off, as by one shot; and the breach, when the assailants reached it, was presently covered with their bodies; many of those who were ascending it were thrown down by the bodies of those above them, the living, the wounded, and the dead, rolling together down the ruins. From the Mirador and Prince batteries, from the keep of the castle, from the high curtain to the left of the breach, and from some ruined houses in front, about forty yards distant, which were loop-holed and lined with infantry, a concentrated fire was kept up; a line of intrenchment had been carried along the nearest parallel walls; this was strongly occupied, and it entirely swept the summit of the breach; and, in addition to all this, the horn-work flanked and commanded the ascent. The tower of Amesquita, on the left of the breach, was the only available point of defence which had not been manned; overlooked it could not have been by such engineers as those who conducted the defence: undoubtedly they considered the means which they had provided to be more than sufficient, and that no courage, however desperate, could in the face of them carry a breach which, upon all rules of art, was actually impracticable. That every art of defence which science and experience