by the French to be practicable, had been effected.

The Turkish guns had returned the fire, aided by two mortars worked by
British sailors, but the Turks believed that their walls were strong
enough to stand a prolonged siege, and as the French fire was heavy
against the tower, those near it had betaken themselves to safer
positions. Sir Sidney Smith was on board the _Tigre_. Djezzar seldom
stirred from his palace. He had no capable officer under him, and no one
was in the slightest degree aware of the serious damage the French
battery was inflicting upon the tower, and there was no thought that an
attack could be made upon the town for a considerable time. Edgar had
been engaged all the morning with Sir Sidney, and when the latter went
on board ship he went into the next house, where he found the others at
dinner.

After that was over he proposed a stroll down to the corner against
which the French fire was directed. Wilkinson and Beatty agreed to
accompany him, but Condor, who had been all day at work seeing guns
placed in position, said that he did not care about going out again. On
reaching the wall facing the French position they found that there was
little doing. A few of the guns were being worked, throwing their shot
into the garden between the French batteries and the town. Along the
rest of the line the Turks were squatting under the parapet, smoking and
talking.

"What are the French firing at?" Edgar asked a Turkish officer.

"They are firing at the tower. They will do no harm. Some of the shots
came in at the loopholes; so, as the soldiers there could do no good by
staying, they have come out."

"That seems rather a careless way of doing business," Edgar remarked as
he translated what the officer said, to his companions. "Well, at any
rate we may as well go and see what the effect of their fire is. Their
battery is not a heavy one, but as it is not more than four or five
hundred yards from the tower it may really be doing some damage."

As they neared the tower at the angle of the wall they found that the
ramparts there had been entirely deserted by the Turks.

"This is a rum way of defending a town," Wilkinson remarked. "If this is
the way the Turks are going to behave, the sooner we are all on board
ship the better."

The French fire was brisk, the thuds of the balls, as they struck the
tower, occurring five or six times a minute. The three officers entered
the tower. Two or three holes appear