It was no longer possible for any man to remain within the breastwork and live, therefore all were ordered to come into the redoubt, where we were better sheltered, and where the enemy had not as yet found the range.
Forgetting the danger, in my eagerness to know what might follow this new method of attack, I leaned far over the fortification until it was possible for me to see, in the distance, the Britishers coming once more upon us, and that scene was not calculated to give me courage, for I soon understood that the king's soldiers were making better preparations than they had in the past attempts. Instead of climbing the hill laden with heavy knapsacks and sweltering in thick, tightly-fitting uniforms, they had cast aside all that might impede or distress them, and even like the rag-tag, they counted on fighting in their shirt-sleeves as should have been done on such a hot day when they first set the pace.
I cannot set down in military terms the tactics which General Howe now displayed; but certain it is that instead of marching straight up the hill, thus giving us every chance at them, after using their artillery to drive us back into the redoubt, they counted on assaulting us at the weakest point, which was the space between the outworks and the rail fence, as I have already set down.
But whatsoever might be their intentions, certain it was they were coming with as much show of determination as ever before, and we must perforce stand against them so long as our ammunition lasted, and what then?
My heart sank within me as I tried to answer my own question even while making ready to do my share in the faint hope of repulsing the Britishers.
CHAPTER XI
THE RETREAT
I believe of a verity that we on Breed's hill might have driven back the Britishers once more, even though our store of ammunition was so small, had it not been for the enemy's artillery which, as I have already said, swept the interior of the breastwork from end to end, forcing us into the redoubt.