would blow in the wall of the fort. However, the men in the fort kept up so rapid a discharge of musketry and handgranades that the enemy was repulsed with considerable loss before the mischief could be effected. The Alcaid, foiled in this attack, ordered a mine to be opened towards the fort. 67 67 On the twenty-ninth a Moorish flag was sent to acquaint Charles fort that the mine was ready, and that if the English did not at once surrender it would be fired. The gallant Captain Trelawney replied that “he was placed there to main"tain the fort and not to yield it, and that the enemy might do "his worst." "68 Omar sent again to say that two of the garrison might come and see the mine for themselves. Two men accordingly went out. Their report of the mine was so far reassuring to their expectant comrades that they testified their defiance of the Moors 7 by firing volleys and rigging a rope with English flags. Still it was a nervous moment for the two captains and their two hundred men; for so confident were the Moors of the success of their mine that they proceeded to fire it. With ill-disguised anxiety the movements of the enemy were watched by the men in the fort. At length it could be guessed that all was ready. The Moors were leaving the mine, and the barbarians in anticipation of their triumph displayed all the symbols of victory. Slavery or death stared in the face those gallant men of the Second Queen's. Even yet there was time to hail the enemy and surrender on terms: but no, they will be true to death to the colours they still defiantly wave. The last two or three quit the mine. The Moors themselves are silent. The man entrusted to light the train runs from the dangerous spot. British and barbarians are alike in suspense for a few moments longer, moments that must have seemed like ages to the devoted garrison.-A shake, a dull sound, a roar, and the mine has exploded. The exasperated Moors see the fort still standing unharmed, and, as the smoke clears off, the red cross of St. George still flying. The Alcaid was disappointed, but not discouraged. On the day following the failure of the mine he sent into Tangier to compliment Sir Palmes Fairborne on his arrival as Governor; and to say that his life might be a long or a short one, but that he intended not to stir from the place until he had taken every fort and reduced Tangier to its old limits. 67 67 Second journal. 69 Sir Palmes Fairborne had lately arrived from home to resume the command. He had been closely followed by four companies of old soldiers of the Royals, and four companies from Ireland for the same regiment; and two months later other reinforcements 70 also arrived consisting of five companies of the First and Second Foot Guards (Ills. XVI and XVII) and a fresh batch of the First Foot (Ill. XVIII): Lord Mulgrave, Colonel of the Third Foot, commanded the re-inforcements,"1 and he was accompanied by Lord Mordaunt (afterwards the famous Earl of Peterborough), Lord Plymouth, Lord Lumley, and other noblemen as volunteers. There were with the Moors several Europeans,--Frenchmen and Levanters. There were even one or two captives from the garrison of Tangier who had preferred to serve the Sultan against their late comrades (perhaps with the hope of escape) rather than be sent up country into hopeless slavery. These men, to the best of their low abilities, instructed the Moors in the arts of gunnery and mining, arts still in their infancy even among the most advanced nations. The practice of the Moors in the former was limited for want of guns, but their success in the latter elated them greatly. When they discovered that their newly-adopted plan of sapping the place they desired to reduce was regarded with anxiety if not alarm by these hitherto fearless Englishmen, their hopes rose, and they worked like galley slaves at their mines.72 They now became possessed of some more guns, probably from some ship wrecked or captured down the coast; for on the eighth of May they brought to bear on Henrietta fort two pieces, the one a three, the other a six-pounder. The next day a breach appeared in the wall of the fort. Sir Palmes Fairborne signalled 4 to Omar Ben Haddn that the fort should be surrendered if the men were suffered to come into the town, "I want not stone walls but slaves," 72 replied the Moor, well aware of the effect of every tangible trophy upon his master the Sultan. Lond. Gazette. Royal Warrt., 4 June, 1680 (presd. in Mackinnon). Royal Warrt., 4 June, 1680, telling off the re-inforcements into battalions. "Lond. Gaz., 24/27 May, 1680. Second journal. London Gazette. Exact journal. Second journal. London Gazette. Exact journal. D Both Charles fort and Henrietta fort had become quite untenable. In the latter their gaped a breach, and against both mines were being approached from every side.75 A council of war was called by the governor and it was resolved to cover by a sally the evacuation of Charles fort. It might perhaps have held out for a few days longer; but so dangerous were by this time the mines under it that the soldiers declared they would abandon it after three days, whether their officers stayed or not.76 On the morning of the fourteenth the guns in the fort were spiked, and all ammunition and material was piled together in readiness to be blown up. The men, at this time one hundred and seventy-six in number," fell in to await the signal from the town. The sallying party was divided into five bodies.78 Captain 75 London Gazette. 76 Exact journal. Thacker. 77 A letter from Tangier Bay, 17 May, 1680. Exact journal. Thacker. 78 Captain Hume, as well as Hacket and Hodge of the same regiment and probably also of the Granadeer company, has had his name handed down to posterity in a doggrel drinking song of the regiment which may be given here as a specimen of the military poetical taste of the period : Hume with a company of the First Royals was to advance. straight on the enemy's trenches. Major Boynton was to command the main body of one hundred and forty men sustain Captain Hume; and two parties of one hundred men 79 to and seventy men each acted as supports, one on either flank of the main body. The naval brigade from the men-of-war in harbour furnished the reserve, which took post in the spur in front of Peterborough tower, Lieutenant Spragg in command. Between Charles fort and the town lay three deep trenches.80 The most formidable was that nearest the town, and this was twelve or fourteen feet in depth and twenty in width. A good deal of rain had fallen lately 1 and the ditches were rendered worse by the quantity of mud and water at the bottom. A proper new Ballad entitled the Granadeers' Rant, to its own proper new tune Lond. 1681. Brit. Mus. 79 Exact journal. London Gazette. 80 London Gazette. Letter from Tangier. Thacker. 81 Letter from Tangier. |