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GENEEAL ASSAULT BEGINS 335 during the night had taken up the positions assigned to them on the sides of the Marmora and on the Golden Horn. The armies on the landward side began simultaneously to attempt the walls at several points. 1 The principal assault was in the Lycus valley and against the stockade : where, says Tetaldi, twelve hundred feet of barbican had been destroyed by the cannon ; where, adds Chalcondylas, 2 four of the strongest towers had been destroyed ; where, says Ducas, the Outer Wall had been so completely broken down that the besiegers and besieged could see each other, and where, explains Critobulus, the Outer Wall had been so entirely overthrown by the cannon that it was no longer a wall but only a stockade built up with beams, fascines, branches and the like, and barrels of earth. 3 The defenders were between the stockade and the Inner Wall. Here they had to defeat the enemy , in front of them or die. Mahomet's intention was to concentrate his attack on the stockade and on the walls between the Adrianople Gate and Tekfour Serai and to deal blow after blow against them with the whole of his available force while making sufficient show of attack elsewhere to draw away the defenders. The assault was commenced by the Bashi-bazouks, the Assault most worthless portion of Mahomet's army, who came up bS^ for this purpose from the northern end of the landward bazouks walls. Many among them were Moslems, but there were so many Christians and foreigners that Barbaro calls them all Christians. 4 Leonard declares that among them were Ger- mans, Hungarians, and other foreigners of various kinds. 5 Mahomet's object in sending forward these men to make the first attack was mainly that they might exhaust the strength and the ammunition of the besieged. This, in- deed, was his method of utilising his superiority in numbers. 6 1 Cambini, 24. 2 P. 160. 3 Ch. Iv. 4 P. 52. 5 Leonard, p. 86 : ' Testis sum quod Graeci, quod Latini, quod Germani, Panones, Boetes, ex omnium christianorum regionibus Teucris commixti opera eorum fidemque didicerunt.' 6 Riccherio, 958 : ' Percioche Maometh pensava, ricreando gli straccbi col rimetter nuove genti nella zuffa, verrebbe a non dar punto di spatio per ripo- sarsi a Greci, di maniera che, non potendo sostener tanta fatiea per lo continuo combattimento, si sarebbono agevolmente potuti vincere. 5