ensued. This was increased by the vigor with
which the garrison now plied their musketry from the ramparts, hurling
down at the same time heavy logs, hand-grenades, and torrents of
scalding pitch on the heads of the assailing column, which, blinded and
staggering under the shock, reeled to and fro like a drunken man. To add
to their distress, the feet of the soldiers were torn and entangled
among the spikes which had been thickly set in the ruins of the breach
by the besieged. Woe to him who fell! His writhing body was soon
trampled under the press. In vain the Moslem chiefs endeavored to
restore order. Their voices were lost in the wild uproar that raged
around. At this crisis the knights, charging at the head of their
followers, cleared the breach, and drove the enemy with loss into his
trenches.

There the broken column soon re-formed, and, strengthened by fresh
troops, was again brought to the attack. But this gave a respite to the
garrison, which La Valette improved by causing refreshments to be served
to the soldiers. By his provident care, skins containing wine and water,
with rations of bread, were placed near the points of attack, to be
distributed among the men.[1356] The garrison, thus strengthened, were
enabled to meet the additional forces brought against them by the enemy;
and the refreshments on the one side were made, in some sort, to
counterbalance the reinforcements on the other. Vessels filled with salt
and water were also at hand, to bathe the wounds of such as were injured
by the fireworks. "Without these various precautions," says the
chronicler, "it would have been impossible for so few men as we were to
keep our ground against such a host as now assailed us on every
quarter."[1357]

Again and again the discomfited Turks gathered strength for a new
assault, and as often they were repulsed with the same loss as before;
till Piali drew off his dispirited legions, and abandoned all further
attempts for that day.

It fared no better on the other quarter, where the besiegers, under the
eye of the commander-in-chief, were storming the fortress of St.
Michael. On every point the stout-hearted chivalry of St. John were
victorious. But victory was bought at a heavy price.

The Turks returned to the attack on the day following, and on each
succeeding day. It was evidently their purpose to profit by their
superior numbers to harass the besieged, and reduce them to a state of
exhaustion. One of these ass