ciiap, ir.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

47

gunpowder, and the care of bathing the cannonswith vinegar when they were too heated, was slain,which caused no little delay and confusion. Thebailiff, severely wounded in a leg, seeing the braveserjeant-major had lost an arm, so many knightskilled, and soldiers; while the enemy was augment-ing with fresh numbers, and that it would be nuga-tory to lose more of his men, resolved on an orderlyretreat to within the main body of the fortressitself. At which sight the enemy chased us withviolent fury; but when they presumed penetratinginto that sacred square between the cavalier andbody of the hold, were met with such a storm offire, and wildfire of every description, the hideousrush down of weighty stones, torrents of boilingoil, volleys of musketry, and several cannonsvomiting destruction, that multitudes were reducedto atoms—not a man of the survivors but was gladto draw back. Yet had they reason to exult thatthey had taken the ravelin; so hoped to be masterof St. Elmo as well this same day. Transportedwith the joy of victory, and a most rash and un-civilised daring, against the merest rudiments ofthe art of war, they determined on the assault, andlike brute beasts, void of the least glimmer of reason,in disdain of evident and most manifest deathyawning and staring them in the face, they ran