CHAP. IV.] ST. JOHN OF JEKUSALEM. 59

bitterly mourned for by the army. Deserters afterthe combat, assure us it was to them a woful day,and two thousand five hundred slain.

“But when they gave up all hopes of taking thetower and mole, they turned all their labours andpower, and intelligence, on an attack upon thewalls themselves; and although the city was soshaken and torn by those various deadly engines,that it scarce retained the least resemblance of whatit was, still they prefer attempting principally thepart from where looking east Jew Street ends, tothat which leads to the tower of Italy. Conse-quently for the purpose of destroying, lacerating,subverting that whole line of wall, they have eighttremendous cannons of the largest size ever seen,disgorging balls of flint nine palms diameter, whichnever cease day or night, from scourging andscourging those groaning flanks. Nor to augmentthe terror of the blows, do the noises of guns andmortars halt for a single minute; and the continualbombardment echoes horribly in all quarters. Wehowever, to afford some protection to the womenand children, and the weak and infirm, from thecannonade and terrible bombardment, hide them inthe ovens, caves, caverns, underground spots in theorchards; so that few of those unoffending creatureswere slain by that infliction. The enemy made