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THE HISTORY OE THE ORDER OF [book IV.

who had sustained some blemish for quitting St.Elmo, but now conducting himself heroically,received that bad wound, of which he died, afterlingering in torments for ten days in the hospital . 1

Mustapha, hearing firing in the direction ofCitta Yecchia, decided on doing what the lateDragut had said he should have done from thefirst; and as it had been represented untenable, andwould not require more than a coup de main , hepromised the Janissaries they might sack it, andkeep all the persons in it as slaves for themselves;which pleased that terrible corps much.

He marched with four thousand infantry thelast of August, leaving to Piali the continuationof the siege of St. Michael’s and Borgo. Thefour thousand were almost all Janissaries, alongwith a quantity of stakes, and engineers and theirtools, and about thirty horse; and after havingreconnoitred Citta Yecchia within cannon-shot,he surrounded it. But Mesquitez, the governor,making not only his soldiery, but also a numberof useless people go to the ramparts with firelocks,caused the place to appear much better garrisonedthan it really was. So Mustapha thought betterof the matter; and retiring to sup and pass thenight at the grand master’s house at Boschetto,

1 Bosio : par. iii., lib. xxxii. 680.

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