Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/476

442 Angelo, directed by the watchful La Valette himself, opened with great steadiness and effect upon their dense masses. Indeed, throughout the day, the artillery of that fort rendered the most efficient assistance by raking the flank and rear of the Turkish forces as they advanced to the attack. That of St. Elmo itself was no less vigorously served. From the instant the enemy first showed himself, its guns opened upon the storming battalions, and before the foot of the breach had been attained, many a turbaned head was laid low.

The janissaries, however, were not troops to be diverted even by this deadly fire. With yells of defiance, and shouting the war-cry of their faith, they dashed forward with reckless intrepidity, and as the iron hail ploughed deep furrows in their ranks, they closed in with invincible steadiness, still pushing their way towards the breach. here they met with fresh obstacles and a new foe. Its summit was crowned with men who had despaired of saving their lives, and who stood there prepared only to sell them as dearly as possible. Against this impenetrable phalanx it was in vain even for the redoubtable janissaries to attempt an entrance. Though they threw themselves again and again upon the enemy, they were as often forced Lo recoil, and the mass of killed and wounded with which the breach lay strewn marked at once the vigour of the assault and the desperate gallantry of the defence.

Whilst this main attack was going forward on the land front, two other attempts were being made to carry the fort by escalade, one on the side of the Marsa Muscetto, the other on that of the grand harbour. The first was repulsed without much difficulty. The huge fragments of rock which the defenders hurled from the parapet broke several of the ladders, and the assailants were thereby thrown backward into the ditch, numbers of them being crushed to death. On the grand harbour side, however, the attack was led by a forlorn hope of thirty men, who, with a fanaticism not unusual to their nation and creed, had bound themselves by a solemn oath either to carry the fort or to perish in the attempt. They made their rush at the rampart in full view of St. Angelo, and succeeded in planting their ladders. The defenders were in truth somewhat taken by surprise, never having contemplated that a spot