Note 14 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
Now Major General Sir John Colborne.
15 During the siege, the enemy threw a vast quantity of shells. One night two mortars kept up an incessant discharge; and the soldiers called out "Here comes a shell from big Tom; and here comes another from little Tom." All the cannon shot that flew over our trenches lodged on a hill one mile north of the town, at the base of which was a spring, where I saw a soldier killed while stooping down to fill his canteen with water. This hill, owing to its being so ploughed up with balls, was familiarly named by the soldiers plumb-pudding hill.
16 Lieutenant Gurwood took the governor of the fortress prisoner.
17 He died in excruciating agony.