CIIAP. III.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

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comania? If sui’efooted and hardy, slippery is theflagging and intricate the stone work they’ll haveto scramble up, or down ; and on broken walls andthe smoking fragments of fallen towers, is wherethey must charge. Ah, little the Frank battalions,gazing from the ramparts, are aware that suddendeath is beneath their feet, where all seems sleepingin its strength! Though discordant and sufficientlyrude, yet the music when softened, as now by somedistance, was martial; and the sultan riding sur-rounded by so splendid a staff, and the sacredbanner on his right, showed extremely grand.

And when two hours before sunset, he lookedupon the innumerable force occupying nearly thirtymiles, from the sea on one wing to the sea on theother, and then on the small town facing him, healmost regretted so much pains as superfluous.“ A pity we have not our Alma girls here,” saidthe sultan. “ For our mercenary hussies to stormit would be laughable, I protest, and more appli-cable to the case than breaches and Mamelukes!But some one of our black-eyed wenches mightperhaps be killed, and inasmuch, as they areMahometans, it would be a shame to risk theugliest of them. Still, since the worthless Giaoursrefused their weasands to my father, I owe hisshade satisfaction; so let us stun them to death !”