Page:Destruction of the Greek Empire.djvu/383

THE ATTACK BY JANISSAEIBS 341 presence of their sovereign, says Critobulus, they never lost their dash, but fought like men possessed and as if life were of no value. They tried to tear down the stockade ; to break or pull down the great barrels of earth which crowned it ; to drag out the beams and thus break down or make a passage through into the Enclosure ; to climb over it on the scaling- ladders which once placed against the wall were immediately crowded with assailants. Their shouts and yells, their calls upon Allah, the noise of their drums, fifes, and trumpets, the roar of the culverins and cannon once more struck terror into the affrighted citizens and were heard, says Barbaro, across the Bosporus. For a while all was mad 1 confusion. We do not need the confirmation of Barbaro and Crito- bulus of the statement that the Greeks and Italians were worn out with their long defence before the attack by the Janissaries commenced. They had been hewing and hacking, throwing down stones and hurling back ladders for nearly, or perhaps quite, three hours and were unequal to contend with many times their numbers of men ardent and fresh for battle. But they knew, as indeed did every one within the city, that the crisis of the attack was at hand, and they manfully fought on. The church bells added to the din : the alarm bells on the walls were calling for every available help. Women and children, monks and nuns, were either assisting to bring stones to their friends on the walls or were on their knees praying that their great city should not fall into the hands of the pagans. Justiniani and his little band met the attack with lances, axes, pikes, and swords, and cut down the foremost of their assailants. For a short time the fight became a hard hand-to-hand encounter, neither party gaining any advantage over the other. Contemporaneously with this latter portion of the The struggle in the Lycus valley, an incident, possibly of supreme importance, was taking place about half a mile to mcide the northward. Of the three ways into the city which Mahomet declared