nse stones to hurl down
upon the assailants.

Oh! it was a glorious, but a sad and mournful sight--that death-struggle
of the valiant Christians against the barbarism of the East. And many
touching proofs of woman's courage and daring characterized that
memorable siege. Especially does this fact merit our attention:--The
wife of a Christian captain, seeing her husband slain, and the enemy
gaining ground rapidly, embraced her two children tenderly, made the
sign of the cross upon their brows, and then, having stabbed them to the
heart, threw them into the midst of a burning building near, exclaiming,
"The infidels will not now be able, my poor darlings, to wreak their
vengeance on you, alive or dead!" In another moment she seized her dead
husband's sword, and plunging into the thickest of the fight, met a
death worthy of a heroine.

The rain now began to fall in torrents, washing away the floods of gore
which, since daybreak, had dyed the bastions and the wall; and the
assault continued as arduously as the defense was maintained with
desperation. Solyman commanded in person the division which was opposed
to the gate and the fort intrusted by the lord general of the Christians
to the care of the Italian auxiliaries. But, though it was now past
noon, and the sultan had prosecuted his attack on that point with
unabated vigor since the dawn, no impression had yet been made. The
Italians fought with a heroism which bade defiance to the numerical
superiority of their assailants; for they were led on by a young
chieftain who, beneath an effeminate exterior, possessed the soul of a
lion. Clad in a complete suit of polished armor, and with crimson plumes
waving from his steel helmet, to which no visor was attached, that
youthful leader threw himself into the thickest of the medley, sought
the very points where danger appeared most terrible--and, alike by his
example and his words, encouraged those whom he commanded to dispute
every inch of ground with the Moslem assailants.

The sultan was enraged when he beheld the success with which that
Italian chieftain rallied his men again after every rebuff; and, calling
to Ibrahim to keep near him, Solyman the Magnificent advanced toward the
breach which his cannon had already effected in the walls defended so
gallantly by the Italian auxiliaries. And now, in a few minutes, behold
the sultan himself, nerved with wonderful energy, rushing on--scimiter
in hand--and calling on the young I