Page 347 - A Knight of the White Cross

showed that the Turks had commenced the attack in another quarter.
Without pausing, the procession continued its way, and it was not until the

service in the chapel had been concluded that any steps were taken to
ascertain the direction of the attack. As soon as it was over, the knights

hastened to the walls. During the night the Turks had transported their great
basilisks, with other large pieces of artillery, from the camp to the rising
ground on the south side of the city, and had opened fire against the wall

covering the Jews' quarter, and at the same time against the tower of St.
Mary on the one hand and the Italian tower on the other.

From other commanding spots huge mortars were hurling great fragments
of rock and other missiles broadcast into the town. The portion of the wall

selected for the attack showed that the Turks had been well informed by
their spies of the weak points of the defence. The wall behind which the

Jews' quarter lay, was, to all appearance, of thick and solid masonry; but
this was really of great age, having formed part of the original defences of
the town, before the Order had established itself there. The masonry,

therefore, was ill fitted to resist the huge balls hurled against it by the
basilisks. The langue of Provence was in charge of this part of the wall,

and, leaving them for the present to bear the brunt of the storm, the grand
master sent the knights who could be spared, to assist the inhabitants to
erect shelters against the storm of missiles falling in the town.

Sheds with sharply sloping roofs, constructed of solid timber, were built

against the inner side of the walls, and beneath these numbers of the
inhabitants found refuge. The work was performed with great celerity by
the inhabitants, aided by the gangs of slaves, and in two or three days the

townspeople were all in shelter, either in these sheds, in the vaults of the
churches, or in other strongly constructed buildings.

Among the missiles hurled into the town were balls filled with Greek fire,
but the houses being entirely built of stone, no conflagrations of importance

were caused by them, as a band of knights was organised specially to watch
for these bombs, and whenever one of them was seen to fall, they hurried

from their lookout to the spot, with a gang of slaves carrying baskets of
earth and buckets of water, and quenched the flames before they had made