Part of the defences of the city were permanent tunnels that had been dug under the marl plateau to the west. During the period of neglect after 1645, these had partly collapsed but prior to the siege some hasty repairs had been carried out. As the French troops were being relieved at daybreak on the early morning of 25 June, the Dutch let a mine explode under the lunette, killing about fifty attackers. Immediately the defenders made a sally and recaptured the lunette for a second time. In response the British and French attacked again, Monmouth circling the lunette from the left, D'Artagnan from the right, while the 2nd Musketeer Company assaulted the front. After a period of confused fighting, the defenders were driven back but several English officers were killed and others wounded, including Churchill. D'Artagnan was fatally hit in the head by a bullet, while passing through a breach in the first contre-escarpe palisade. Of the three hundred musketeers deployed, over eighty had been killed and over fifty severely wounded. In their honour, a later ravelin erected on this location was to be called the "demilune des mousquetaires". In this critical phase of the battle, de Vauban lost his confidence. It had been assumed that the morale of the garrison was low but it now proved to be much more aggressive than expected. Also he worried about the possible extent of the tunnelling. He wrote to François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, the French minister of war, that if the Dutch managed to recapture the lunette for a third time, it was a distinct possibility that the siege would have to be lifted. At first the attackers had only a tenuous hold on the lunette and it would take them over five hours to bring up reinforcements. Another sortie would not materialise however, the population beginning to fill the gate with manure.