CHAP. II.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

63

Which most patient and attentive harquebussiersholding their harquebusses pointed up towards thefort’s parapets, no sooner was observed the crest ofa morion, or a vizor opened, than they hit it, notpermitting one of us to be seen, before the Turk andours came to the grapple; for then those sharpestof sharpshooters, not to hurt their companions,ceased; though happen it sometimes did, that thesame bullet killed both a Christian and a Turk.Indeed stupendous and admirable were the punc-tuality and diligence of that corps during the wholewar, especially in assaults, when the harquebussiersslew more of ours than artillery, archers, thoseenormous engines, or any other weapons of offencewhatever. The enemy also sent armed men (asmany as they could hold) into the ditches imme-diately round the fortress, with multitudes ofladders. And little noise as they made, we dis-covered it; and did our best to disturb them withartificial fire and fragments of hard limestone, whichlast made a great figure in all this deadly siege.Very ineffective indeed, we repeat, is the musket inrepelling scalers, at least as a firearm, when theaim is straight down. And if with the bayonet, itbecomes a sort of pike; but the real pike is better, aslighter, longer, and more manageable. But stonesare still better, if of aweight to upset the ladders; for