Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/475

Rh soldiers to direct the defence. Three small bodies were kept in reserve to render assistance at any point which might be hard pressed, and a few who, from wounds or age, were considered the least available for active duty, were appointed to convey ammunition and refreshments to the combatants, so that no one might on any account leave his post. Various descriptions of fireworks were provided. Pots of earthenware, so baked as to break easily, were filled with wildfire; they were of a size that admitted of their being thrown by hand from twenty to thirty yards, and had a narrow orifice closed with linen or thick paper secured by cords dipped in sulphur. Before throwing the missile these cords were lighted, and as on falling the earthenware pot broke in pieces, the contents became at once ignited. This wildfire was composed of saltpetre, ammoniacal salt, pounded sulphur, camphor, varnish, and pitch; it burnt with the utmost fury, clinging to the bodies of those with whom it came in contact. The same material was also placed in hollow cylinders of wood called trumps, which, when lighted, poured forth streams of flame. These trumps, attached to the ends of halberds or partisans, became a most formidable obstacle to the advance of a storming party. Another missile used with great effect at this siege was a hoop of considerable diameter surrounded with flax steeped in inflammable matter and ignited. This, when hurled from above on to a crowded mass of men, often enclosed several in its fiery embrace, and easily succeeded in igniting their clothes, which, after the eastern fashion, were flowing and of light material.

Before dawn on the morning of the 16th, the knights detected the sounds of a religious ceremonial, which they rightly judged was the precursor to an assault. Mustapha’s first step was to line his trenches with arquebusiers to the number of 4,000. These men had already displayed their skill as marksmen, and during this day’s struggle they were of immense use in checking the defenders from exposing themselves on the parapets. At the appointed signal, given by Mustapha himself, a body of janissaries, the leaders of the column, rushed into the ditch at a point where the ruins of the escarp promised the greatest facilities for ascent. During the interval, brief as it was, whilst they were crossing the open ground, the guns of St.