The preparations for the assault had been observed by the Irish, and they were in readiness to receive it.  The news had spread through the town, and the excitement among the whole population was intense.  The guns on the walls ceased firing, in order that all might be ready to pour in their shower of balls, when the assault commenced.  The fire from the batteries of the besiegers had also died away, and a silence, which seemed strange after the constant din of the preceding days, hung over the camp and city.

No sooner had the grenadiers leaped from the trenches, than the guns on the walls, and the musketry of the defenders, poured their fire upon them; while all the batteries of the besiegers opened, at the same moment, to cover the assault.  Through the hail of fire the grenadiers kept on without faltering, and, as they neared the breach, the Irish rushed out through the opening to meet them.  There was a desperate struggle, half hidden from the eyes of those on the walls by the cloud of smoke and dust, which arose from the combatants; but the grenadiers, fighting with the greatest gallantry, won their way to the counter-scarp, and half the regiment forced its way through the breach and entered the town.  But the Irish troops, clustered behind the wall, then closed in again, and barred the breach to those following.

The Dutch and English regiments were marched up, to aid the rest of the grenadiers to cut their way in after their comrades; but these troops were unable to imitate the valour of the grenadiers.  They got as far as the counter-scarp; but the fire from the walls was so deadly, that they could not be prevailed upon to advance.  The rain of fire mowed them down.  Their officers urged them on, and, unwilling to retreat and incapable of advancing, they were shot down in scores.

Presently there was a sudden movement among the Irish defenders on the breach, and a few of the grenadiers who had entered the city burst their way through them, and rejoined their comrades.  No sooner had they entered the city, than they found themselves assailed on all sides.  The Irish troops and the citizens attacked them with fury, and even the women, animated by the deadly hate which the deeds of William’s soldiers had excited, hurled missiles upon them from the windows, and even joined in the attacks upon them in the streets.

The grenadiers resisted obstinately, but they were gradually overpowered by numbers, until at last a few survivors, gathering together, burst through their assailants, and succeeded in making their retreat.  For nearly three hours this furious conflict had raged within the city.  Regiment after regiment had been marched up to the assault, but none had proved brave enough to fight their way up the counter-scarp to the aid of the hard-pressed grenadiers in the town.

When the little remnant of the grenadiers rejoined them, they continued, for a time, to keep up a constant fire upon the defenders on the walls, but at last slowly and sullenly fell back to their camp.