e dead, and the putrefaction of hundreds of corpses
under that burning sun added appalling horrors. To the pure spirits of a
happier world, in the sweet companionship of celestial mansions, loving
and blessing each other, it must have appeared a spectacle worthy of
pandemonium. And yet the human heart is so wicked, that it can often,
forgetting the atrocity of such a scene, find a strange pleasure in the
contemplation of its energy and its heroism. We are indeed a fallen race.

There were occasional lulls in this awful storm, during which each party
would be rousing its energies for more terrible collision. The besiegers
burrowed mines deep under the foundations of walls and towers, and with
the explosion of hundreds of barrels of gunpowder, opened volcanic
craters, blowing men and rocks into hideous ruin. In the midst of the
shower of destruction darkening the skies, the assailants rushed, with
sabres and dripping bayonets, to the assault. The onset, on the part of
the French, was as furious and desperate as mortal man is capable of
making. The repulse was equally determined and fearless.

Sir Sydney Smith conducted the defense, with the combined English and
Turkish troops. He displayed consummate skill, and unconquerable firmness,
and availed himself of every weapon of effective warfare. Conscious of the
earnest desire of the French soldiers to return to France, and of the
despair with which the army had been oppressed when the fleet was
destroyed, and thus all hope of return was cut off, he circulated a
proclamation among them, offering to convey safely to France every soldier
who would desert from the standard of Napoleon. This proclamation, in
large numbers, was thrown from the ramparts to the French troops. A more
tempting offer could not have been presented, and yet so strong was the
attachment of the soldiers for their chief, that it is not known that a
single individual availed himself of the privilege. Napoleon issued a
counter proclamation to his army, in which he asserted that the English
commodore had actually gone mad. This so provoked Sir Sydney, that he sent
a challenge to Napoleon to meet him in single combat. The young general
proudly replied, "If Sir Sydney will send Marlborough from his grave, to
meet me, I will think of it. In the mean time, if the gallant commodore
wishes to display his personal prowess, I will neutralize a few yards of
the beach, and send a tall grenadier, with whom he can run a ti