Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/747

Appeiidix VI!. 709 back, from which they could conveniently enter upon the walls of the town We, however, perceiving the attempt of the foe, watched over the safety of the city, and throughout the town, and castles, and ditches, inspected carefully where repairs and munitions were required; which the Turks perceiving, turned again in despair to the Jews’ rampart, and other spots; whilst we, with repairs and supports, restored such places as they had ruined, with stakes of the thickest timber, firmly planted into the ground, and covered with earth, and with roots and branches interlaced, which, clinging together most tenaciously and firmly, sustained the shock of their missiles, and protected the breach, lest the rampart falling into the city should afford them an easy descent. We also made similar bulwarks, with stakes interlaced with brushwood and earth, as cover for our men, and as an obstacle to the Turks when climbing up. We also prepared artificial fire, and other contrivances, which might prove useful in repelling the attack of the Turks. We also thought it advisable to empty that part of the ditch which the Turks had filled with stones; but as that could not otherwise be done secretly, from the situation of the ditch, we made for ourselves an exit beneath the stones, and secretly brought them into the town. The Turks who were nearest the ditch, however, remarked that the heap of stones diminished, and that the facilities for an ascent would be reduced, unless they rapidly carried out the attack they contemplated. Thirty-eight days were-passed in these labours; and during that time 3,1100 huge stones, or thereabouts, were hurled at the ramparts and into the town. The Turks, perceiving that the opportunity of storming the town was being gradually taken away from them, hastened on their preparatory works, and on the day before the assault, and that night, and even on the early morning itself, they battered at the walls without intermission with eight huge bombards, hurling enormous rocks; they destroyed and overthrew the barriers that had been erected behind the breach; the sentries, look-outs, and guards of the ramparts were mostly killed, and it was hardly possible to mount the wall, except by taking the utmost precautions, and by descending a little at the sound of a bell, and afterwards continuing the ascent. Nor was time given us to repair tbe ruined fortification; since the vigour of the bombardment never relaxed, and in a little time 300 stones, or thereabouts, had been discharged. The bombardment having concluded, the Turks, at the signal of a mortar, which had been placed there the day previous, mounted the breach, on the seventh day of the kalends of August, in a vigorous and rapid attack; and the ascent was, as we have already said, easy for them, easier than it was for our men, who had to use ladders. Annihilating the guard who had been placed on the summit of the rampart, who were unable to resist that first onset, before our reinforcements could ascend the ladders, they had occupied the spot, and planted their standards there. The same thing occurred at the bastion of Italy, whose summit they gained. The alarm was given on all sides, and a hand-to-hand encounter commenced, and was carried on with the utmost vehemence. Suddenly, our men opposing themselves to the foe, on the right and left of the rampart, drove them from