VICTORIOUS ATTACK. 207
that the object was worthy the sacrifice. Despite chap.
the fire thinning their ranks, our troops advanced !_
with great gallantry, pulled down the stone walls,
soon carried the whole position, and then pushing
on, seized and occupied numbers of houses, some
in front, some on the right, some under the
Garden Wall Battery.
The question whether all or how much of the
conquest thus made should be permanently re-
tained by our people was dependent at first on
the course of events in other parts of the field,
but afterwards on the judgment of our Engineers,
the men best able to say what part of the newly
won ground was likely to be of use to the be-
siegers ; and therefore the commander resolved
to hold all he had seized until the time when
authority should be ready to determine the ques-
tion. This he accordingly did, and it was only
at five o'clock in the evening that he made any
change. Then — unmolested by the enemy — his
troops were withdrawn from that part of the
conquered ground which our Engineers did not
wish to retain, whilst in that other part which
it seemed expedient to keep, strong posts were
duly established. By this time, computing from
daybreak, when the firing is believed to have
opened, the action had lasted scarce less than
fourteen hours. The ground General Eyre re-
tained was afterwards fortified under the direc-
tion of our Engineers.
Erom one of the enemy's missiles in the early
part of the day, General Eyre had received a blow
