Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/237

Rh rampart of Christian warriors it was in vain that he hurled the choicest battalions in his vast army. Taught by this experience his fertile genius soon devised a. means for meeting his opponents upon a different footing.

He constructed numerous round wooden towers on rollers and of such dimensions as to contain 200 men within each. They were divided into three compartments, of which the centre one was on a level with the ramparts. The top floor was to be crowded with archers who could look down on the defenders, and pour a destructive fire on them at the moment of assault. In the centre floor a drawbridge was attached which when lowered would enable the assailants to reach the rampart. The lower compartment was filled with miners who were enabled to burrow their way into the heart of the walls, completely secure from any missiles. He at the same time constructed huge rafts, as described by the Persian historian, rising three feet above the level of the water. These were lashed together and projected from the shore on either side till they met in the centre, forming a roadway across the channel, and completely cutting off the fortress from all succour on the side of the sea. When these various works were completed, which with the huge force at his disposal did not take long to accomplish, the unfortunate knights felt that their doom was sealed.

Everything being now ready, Timour gave the signal for the onset, and the ponderous towers moved slowly towards the ramparts. Although a storm of rain poured in incessant torrents throughout the day, nothing checked the ardour of the assault. Sefet states that throughout the siege the rain fell without ceasing, and it seemed as though a new deluge had broken over the land. He also records, with a candour most praiseworthy on the part of an opponent, the extreme bravery of the defence. These are his words—”If the attack was vigorous the defence was not less firm, and no one was permitted a moment of repose. Although the battering rams and other machines dashing against the walls breached them even to their foundations, the defenders remained none the less bravely at their posts, hurling without cessation upon the enemy pots of Greek fire and naphtha, fiery wheels and huge stones.”