But the French troops at the flanks were steadily forcing their way up.

Many had climbed up by the ruins of the wall, and from its top were firing down on the defenders of the barricade.

Inch by inch they won their way up the barricade, already thickly covered with dead; and then Charlie, seeing that his men were beginning to waver, gave the signal.
The long blast of a trumpet was heard even above the tremendous din.
In an instant the barricades were deserted, and the defenders rushed into the houses.

The partition walls between these on the lower floors had already been knocked down, and without suffering from the heavy fire which the assailants opened, as soon as they gained the crest of the barricade, the defenders retreated along these covered ways until in rear of the second line of defence.
This was held by the battalion placed there, until the whole of the defenders of the town had left it, by the gate leading up to the fort.
Then Charlie withdrew this battalion also, and the town remained in the hands of the enemy; who had lost, Charlie reckoned, fully fifteen hundred men in the assault.
During the fight Tim and the faithful Hossein, now fully recovered and promoted to the rank of an officer, had remained close beside him; and were, with him, the last to leave the town.
The instant the evacuation was complete, the guns of the hill battery opened upon the town; and a tremendous fire of musketry was poured upon it from every point of the castle which commanded it; while the guns, which from their lofty elevation, could not be depressed sufficiently to bear upon the town, directed their fire upon the bodies of troops still beyond the walls.

The enemy had captured the town, indeed, but its possession aided them but little in their assault upon the fort.