There was the rumble and roar of falling buildings and walls; and then came dull, crashing sounds as masses of brickwork, hurled high up into the air, fell over the town and the surrounding country.

Then came a dead silence, which was speedily broken by the sound of loud screams and shouts from the town.
"It is just as we feared," Terence said as, bruised and bewildered, he struggled to his feet.

"The magazine in the castle has exploded." He ordered the bugler to sound the assembly and, as the men gathered, it was found that although many of them had been hurt severely, by the violence with which they had been thrown down, none had been killed either by the shock or the falling fragments.
An officer was at once sent to the other redoubt, to inquire how they had fared; and to give orders to Bull to keep his men under arms, lest the French should take advantage of the catastrophe, and make a sudden attack.
"Ryan, do you take the command of the men, here, until I come back.
I will go into the town and see Colonel Cox.

I fear that the damage will be so great that the town will be really no longer defensible and, even if it were, the Portuguese troops will be so cowed that there will be no more fight left in them." It was but five hundred yards to the wall.

Terence was unchallenged as he ran up.