about midday
`` All this time the shots of the Nawab 's cannon annoyed us , not to much harm , for they were most villainously served ; their fire arrows did us more mischief , flying into the thick of the crowds of screaming women and children . It made my heart sick to think of the poor innocent people suffering through the weakness and incompetence and the guilty neglect of our Council . The heat and the glare , the want of food , the uproar and commotion -- may I never see or hear the like again ! `` Yesterday there was a lull in the fighting about midday . The enemy were still outside the fort , though they had possession of all the houses around . They showed a flag of truce , whereupon Mr. Holwell writ a letter asking 'em for terms . But 't was a trick to deceive us .