The order was promptly obeyed.

At the first rush the ditch was passed, the rampart gained, the outer walls scaled, and three guns taken without the loss of a man.
The defenders hastened at once to meet this new danger.

They opened a heavy fire upon the British, and sallying out, endeavored to retake the outer rampart with the bayonet.

A desperate contest ensued; but though many of the English officers and soldiers fell, they would not yield a foot of the position they had captured.

Colonel Southwell, a man of great personal strength and daring, was in the struggle three times surrounded by the enemy; but each time he cut his way out in safety.
The sally was at last repulsed, and the English intrenched their position and turned their captured guns against the fort.