Some say the first fuse failed, some that it was very slow.

Anyhow, the party was kept waiting on the hill-top almost half an hour, when the whole thing ought to have been done in a quarter.

Those extra fifteen minutes cost many lives.

At last the shock of the explosion came.

Two great holes were made in the gun's rifling near the muzzle, and the breech was blown clean out, the screw being destroyed.