54

THE HISTORY OE THE ORDER OE [book III.

strous balls, so that it partly fell down. But chieflythey thought proper to attack and press the city onthree sides^ and that their efforts above all shouldbe to destroy the tower of the mole of St. Nicholas,as the surest road, in their opinion, to possessthemselves of the city.

“ This tower rises like a little citadel out at theend of the mole, stretching northward into the seaas far as the entrance of the harbour, so as to beinstantly in full sight of the pilots, who can drawup close to it if they choose, or easily keep off fromit. To the west stands St. Anthony’s Oratory (ofwhich the Turks got early into possession, as a sortof suburb, and not defensible), about two hundredpaces from the tower, with a little channel of seabetween . 1 On an inspection of the site then, theenemy became avid of gaining the tower, and hadrecourse to every expedient in their power. So tobatter it down, they brought three brazen cannonsof immense size—so wonderfully immense as to benearly incredible—that threw balls of stone ninepalms diameter, and placed those huge cannon atSt. Anthony’s . 2 Marvellous to relate and calamitousto see, that celebrated work, and that seemed of

i Which indeed forms the inner port of Rhodes for galleys,admitting only one galley at a time.

1 Es jardins du dit St. Anthoine.—Mary Dupuis.