SIR WILLIAM SIDNEY SMITH.
303
men, women, and children, at the sight of such a reinforcement, at such a time, is not to be described.
“Many fugitives returned with us to the breach, which we found defended by a few brave Turks, whose most destructive missile weapons were heavy stones, which, striking the assailants on the head, overthrew the foremost down the slope, and impeded the progress of the rest. A succession, however, ascended to the assault, the heap of ruins between the two parties serving as a breast work to both; the muzzles of their muskets touching, and the spear heads of the standards locked. Dgezzar Pasha, hearing the English were on the breach, quitted his station, where, according to the ancient Turkish custom, he was sitting to reward such as should bring him the heads of the enemy, and distributing musket cartridges with his own hands. The energetic old man coming behind us, pulled us down with violence; saying, if any harm happened to his English friends, all was lost. This amicable contest, as to who should defend the breach, occasioned a rush of Turks to the spot; and thus time was gained for the arrival of the first body of Hassan Bey’s troops. I had now to combat the Pasha’s repugnance to admitting any troops but his Albanians into the garden of his seraglio, which had become a very important post, as occupying the terreplein of the rampart. There was not above 200 of the original 1000 Albanians left alive. This was no time for debate, and I over-ruled his objections by introducing the Chifflick regiment, of 1000 men, armed with bayonets, disciplined after the European method under Sultan Selim’s own eye, and placed by his Imperial Majesty’s express command, at my disposal. The garrison, animated by the appearance of such a reinforcement, was now all on foot; and there being consequently enough to defend the breach, I proposed to the Pasha to get rid of the object of his jealousy, by opening his gates to let them make a sally, and take the assailants in flank; he readily complied, and I gave directions to the Colonel to get possession of the enemy’s third parallel or nearest trench, and there fortify himself by shifting the parapet outwards. This order being clearly understood, the gates were opened, and the Turks rushed out; but they were not equal to such a movement, and were driven back to the town with loss. Mr. Bray[1], however, as usual, protected the town-gate efficaciously with grape from the sixty-eight pounders. The sortie had this good effect, that it obliged the enemy to expose themselves above their parapets, so that our flanking fires brought down numbers of them, and drew their force from the breach, so that the small number remaining on the lodgment were killed or dispersed by our few remaining hand grenades thrown by Mr. Savage, Midshipman of the Theseus. The enemy began a new breach by an incessant fire directed to the southward of the lodgment, every shot knocking down whole sheets of a wall, much less solid than that of the tower, on which they had expended so much time and ammunition. The group of generals and aides-de-camp, which the shells from the sixty-eight pounders had frequently dispersed, was now re-assembled on Richard Coeur de Lion’s- ↑ Mr. Bray was carpenter of the Tigre, and appears to have been a very superior man in every respect to the generality of warrant officers.
