the ramparts;
and when the clouds of vapor began to dissipate, the garrison were
astonished to find their enemies at their side, and a number of small
banners, such as the Turks usually bore into the fight, planted on the
walls. The contest now raged fiercer than ever, as the parties fought on
more equal terms;--the Mussulmans smarting under their wounds, and the
Christians fired with the recollection of St. Elmo, and the desire of
avenging their slaughtered brethren. The struggle continued long after
the sun, rising high in the heavens, poured down a flood of heat on the
combatants; and the garrison, pressed by superior numbers, weary and
faint with wounds, were hardly able to keep their footing on the
slippery ground, saturated with their own blood and that of their
enemies. Still the cheering battle-cry of St. John rose in the air; and
their brave leader, Zanoguerra, at the head of his knights, was to be
seen in the thickest of the fight. There too was Brother Robert, an
ecclesiastic of the order, with a sword in one hand and a crucifix in
the other, though wounded himself, rushing among the ranks, and
exhorting the men "to fight for the faith of Jesus Christ, and to die in
its defence."[1342]

At this crisis the commander, Zanoguerra, though clad in armor of proof,
was hit by a random musket-shot, which stretched him lifeless on the
rampart. At his fall the besiegers set up a shout of triumph, and
redoubled their efforts. It would now have gone hard with the garrison,
had it not been for a timely reinforcement which arrived from Il Borgo.
It was sent by La Valette, who had learned the perilous state of the
bastion. He had, not long before this, caused a floating bridge to be
laid across the Port of Galleys,--thus connecting the two peninsulas
with each other, and affording a much readier means of communication
than before existed.

[Sidenote: SLAUGHTER OF THE TURKS.]

While this was going on, a powerful reinforcement was on its way to the
support of the assailants. Ten boats of the largest size, having a
thousand janizaries on board, were seen advancing across the Great
Harbor from the opposite shore. Taking warning by the fate of their
countrymen, they avoided the palisades, and, pursuing a more northerly
course, stood for the extreme point of the Spur. By so doing, they
exposed themselves to the fire of a battery in St. Angelo, sunk down
almost to the water's level. It was this depressed condition of the work