40 THE HISTORY OE THE ORDER OE [book iv.

when forth burst from that awful battery an echothat reverberated everywhere; and those infernalengines, with too fair order, began opening furiouslyagainst the doomed fortress. In one straight linefrom northeast those dreadful batteries extended onthe pinnacle of Scheb-Erras, so as to be on a levelwith the great cavalier of St. Elmo, at one hun-dred and eighty yards’ distance, as noted in thejournal of the order’s engineer at that time.Fourteen standards of different colours were plantedthereon; with as many cannon, ten sending ironballs of eighty pounds each, three colubrines ofsixty each ; and a basilisk of one hundred andsixty. Thirteen had wheels; but the basilisk,another sort of machinery moving with more easeto aim better and recoil less; as those most excel-lent of artillerymen showed to perfection. Won-derful! Those monstrous guns struck point blankwhat smallest mark soever; and continually passedthrough our port holes and overturned our cannon.The grand master that morning stood a good hourwithout once moving, admiring the various effectsof the Turkish battery; some of whose balls afterhitting their first mark, rose and went hissing in adirect course up towards heaven, crowned as theyflew with a fiery circle; and then descending gavea second blow, and often several blows—killing

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X.