raged at Algiers. The French ships of the line approached the front of the city, and opened fire on the sea defences almost simultaneously with the bombardment of the fort. The French had one hundred guns in battery, while the Algerines had more than double that number in the fort, but all their artillery could not be brought to bear at once. The Algerines served their guns bravely, but their fire was greatly inferior to that of the French, and very soon the excellence of the artillery practice of the latter was manifest. One by one the defenders' guns were dismounted, the walls were breached, the gunners were either killed or wounded or driven from their batteries, and finally the survivors sought refuge in a huge tower in the middle of the fort. Shortly afterwards the tower blew up with an explosion that reduced it to a mass of ruins and killed nearly all those who had fled to it for protection. As soon as they could form, the French grenadiers assaulted and carried the fort, and the city of the deys was in the possession of a Christian power.
The dey hoisted the white flag and offered to surrender, for which purpose he sent an envoy to meet General Bourmont in the Emperor's Fort. Hussein Pasha hoped to the last moment to retain his country and its independence by making liberal concessions in the way of indemnity for the expenses of the war, and offered to liberate all Christian slaves in addition to paying them for their services and sufferings. The English consul tried to mediate on this basis, but his offers of mediation were politely declined; the French were determined on nothing short of complete conquest and the utter demolition of this nest of pirates, that had so long scourged the Mediterranean and the countries bordering on it. It was finally agreed that the dey should surrender Algiers with all its forts and military stores, and be permitted to retire wherever he chose with his wives, children, and personal belongings, but he was not to remain in the country under
