This was not done without constant skirmishing, and was not completed till three o'clock, when the refugees were collected,--namely, a hundred Sepoys, with their wives and children, stripped of all their ornaments, which they had buried; some Hindoo and Burmese servants; a few Portuguese traders; a wily old Mussulman; Mrs.Boardman and Mrs.Burney, each with her baby; and seven Englishmen besides Mr.Boardman.

Among them rode the ghastly figure of the sick officer, who had been taken from his bed, but who hoped to encourage his men by appearing on horseback; but his almost orange skin, wasted form, sunken eyes, and perfect helplessness, were to Mrs.Boardman even more terrible than the yells of the insurgents around and the shots of their scanty escort.
Three hundred persons were crowded together in the wooden shed, roofed over, and supported on posts above the water, with no partitions.

The situation was miserable enough, but they trusted that the enemy, being only armed with spears, could not reach them.

By and by, however, the report of a cannon dismayed them.

The jingals, or small field-pieces, were brought up, but not till evening; and the inexperienced rebels took such bad aim that all the balls passed over the wharf into the sea, and the dense darkness put a stop to the attempt; but all night the trembling inmates were awakened by savage yells; and a Sepoy, detecting a spark of light through the chinks of the floor, fired, and killed an enemy who had come beneath in a boat to set fire to the frail shelter! In the morning the firing from the walls was renewed, but at long intervals, for there was a great scarcity of powder, though the unhappy besieged apprehended every moment that the right direction would be hit upon, and then that the balls would be among them.