which in a melee was far more useful than the long sword.
Scimitars clashed upon his helmet and armour; but at every blow he
struck a Turk fell, and for each foot he gained a knight sprang on to
the wall and joined him. Each moment their number increased, and the war
cry of the Order rose louder and fiercer above the din. The very number
of the Turks told against them. Crowded together as they were they could
not use their weapons effectually, and, pressing fiercely upon them, the
knights drove them back along the wall on either hand, hurling them down
into the street or over the rampart. On so narrow a field of battle the
advantage was all on the side of the knights, whose superior height and
strength, and the protection afforded by their armour, rendered them
almost invincible, nerved as they were with fury at the surprise that
had overtaken them, and the knowledge that the fate of the city depended
upon their efforts. After a quarter of an hour's desperate conflict the
Turks were driven down the partial breach effected in the wall by the
last bombardment, and the Christians were again the masters of their
ramparts. Paleologus, however, hurried up reinforcements, headed by
a band of janissaries, whose valour had decided many an obstinate
conflict. Before ordering them to advance, he gave instructions to
a company of men of approved valour to devote all their efforts to
attacking D'Aubusson himself, whose mantle and rich armour rendered him
a conspicuous object among the defenders of the breach. Advancing to the
attack, the janissaries burst through the mass of Turks still continuing
the conflict, and rushed up the breach. Then the chosen band, separating
from the rest, flung themselves upon the grand master, the suddenness
and fury of their attack isolating him and Gervaise from the knights
around.

Surrounded as he was by foes, already suffering from two severe wounds
and shaken by his falls from the ladder, the grand master yet made a
valiant defence in front, while Gervaise, hurling his mace into the face
of one of his assailants, and drawing his two handed sword, covered him
from the attack from behind. D'Aubusson received two more severe wounds,
but still fought on. Gervaise, while in the act of cutting down an
assailant, heard a shout of triumph from behind, and, looking round, he
saw the grand master sinking to the ground from another wound. With a
cry of grief and fury Gervaise sprang to him, receiving as he d