The 17th, the convent being nearly in ruins, the assault was ordered without waiting for the effect of the new battery raised on the other side of the Urumea. The storming party was formed in two columns. Detachments from Wilson’s Portuguese, supported by the light company of the ninth British regiment and three companies of the royals, composed the right, which under the direction of general Hay was destined to assail the redoubt. General Bradford directed the left which being composed of Portuguese, supported by three companies of the ninth British regiment under colonel Cameron, was ordered to assail the convent. ASSAULT OF SAN BARTOLOMEO. At ten o’clock in the morning two heavy six-pounders opened against the redoubt; and a sharp fire of musquetry in return from the French, who had been reinforced and occupied the suburb of San Martin, announced their resolution to fight. The allied troops were assembled behind the crest of the hill overlooking the convent, and the first signal was given, but the Portuguese advanced slowly at both attacks, and the supporting companies of the ninth regiment on each side, passing through them fell upon the enemy with the usual impetuosity of British soldiers. Colonel Cameron while leading his grenadiers down the face of the hill was exposed to a heavy cannonade from the horn-work, but he soon gained the cover of a wall fifty yards from the convent and there awaited the second signal. However his rapid advance, which threatened to cut off the garrison from the suburb, joined to the fire of the two six-pounders and that of some other field-pieces on the farther side of the Urumea, caused the French to abandon the redoubt. Seeing this, Cameron jumped over the wall and assaulted both the convent and the houses of the suburb. At the latter a fierce struggle ensued and captain Woodman of the ninth was killed in the upper room of a house after fighting his way up from below; but the grenadiers carried the convent with such rapidity that the French, unable to explode some small mines they had prepared, hastily joined the troops in the suburb. There however the fighting continued and colonel Cameron’s force being very much reduced the affair was becoming doubtful, when the remaining companies of his regiment, which he had sent for after the attack commenced, arrived, and the suburb was with much fighting entirely won. At the right attack the company of the ninth, although retarded by a ravine by a thick hedge by the slowness of the Portuguese and by a heavy fire, entered the abandoned redoubt with little loss, but the troops were then rashly led against the cask redoubt, contrary to general Oswald’s orders, and were beaten back by the enemy. [Sidenote: Bellas Journaux des Sièges.]