icily,--a soldier whose personal authority, combined with great
military knowledge, proved eminently useful to the garrison.

The loss which the besiegers had sustained in the late encounter was
more than counterbalanced by the arrival, at this time, of Dragut, the
famous pasha of Tripoli, with thirteen Moorish galleys. He was welcomed
by salvos of artillery and the general rejoicing of the army; and this
not so much on account of the reinforcement which he brought--the want
of which was not then felt--as of his reputation; for he was no less
celebrated as an engineer than as a naval commander. The sultan, who had
the highest opinion of his merits, had ordered his generals to show him
the greatest deference; and they, at once, advised with him as to the
best means of prosecuting the siege. The effect of his counsel was soon
seen in the more judicious and efficient measures that were adopted. A
battery of four culverins was established on the western headland
commanding the entrance of Port Musiette. It was designed to operate on
the western flank of the fortress; and the point of land on which it
stood is still known by the name of the redoubtable corsair.

Another battery, much more formidable from the number and size of the
pieces, was raised on an eminence to the south of St. Elmo, and played
both upon that fort and upon the castle of St. Angelo. The counterscarp
of the former fortress was shaved away, so as to allow a free range to
the artillery of the besiegers;[1313] and two cannon were planted on the
ravelin, which directed a searching fire on the interior of the
fortress, compelling the garrison to shelter themselves behind
retrenchments constructed under the direction of Miranda.[1314]

[Sidenote: HEROIC DEFENCE OF ST. ELMO.]

The artillery of the Turks now opened with dreadful effect, as they
concentrated their fire on the naked walls of St. Elmo. No masonry could
long withstand the tempest of iron and ponderous marble shot which was
hurled from the gigantic engines of the besiegers. Fragments of the wall
fell off as if it had been made of plaster; and St. Elmo trembled to its
foundations under the thunders of the terrible ordnance. The heart of
the stoutest warrior might well have faltered as he saw the rents each
day growing wider and wider, as if gaping to give entrance to the fierce
multitude that was swarming at the gates.

In this extremity, with the garrison wasted by the constant firing of
the enem