by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER XII.
A DESPERATE SIEGE.
Just as day began to break, the gates were opened, and the columns movedout one after the other. The order that the strictest silence was to beobserved was obeyed by the sailors and marines; but the Turks, who werewrought up to a pitch of enthusiasm, made so great a noise that themoment they issued from the gate shots were fired by the advancedpickets, and a few seconds later the roll of drums in the French linesbroke out, and it was clear that the whole camp was alarmed. Sir SidneySmith uttered an exclamation of anger. As concealment was useless, hethen sent the two midshipmen to order all the batteries to open fireupon the French trenches, and as the first gun boomed out the ships andgun-boats on both flanks also opened fire, and the trenches by which theFrench must advance from the village were swept by a storm of shot. TheFrench batteries joined in the din, while the infantry in the advancedtrenches opened a heavy musketry fire.
"By Jove, the Turks mean fighting this time!" Wilkinson said, when heand Edgar had both returned from carrying their orders. "Look at them,they are going at the French trenches in gallant style."
The dark masses could be plainly made out in the gray light that wasnow stealing over the sky. Undaunted by the heavy fire of the French,the Turks rushed at the earthworks, scaled them, and engaged in adesperate hand-to-hand fight with their defenders. But the chiefattention of the little group on the tower, where Captain Wilmot andColonel Phelypeaux had also stationed themselves, was riveted upon thefight going on in front of them. Already the French were thronging downfrom their trenches, and the blue-jackets and marines were engaged in afierce fight. Knight, second of the _Tigre_, received two balls in hisleft arm as he advanced, but upon arriving at the top of the shaft ofthe mine he and the pioneers at once leapt down into it.
One ran forward to see if it was charged, and brought back news that itwas not. Lieutenant Knight and the little party of sailors workeddesperately to pull down the props that supported the roof of thegallery, but they had little time allowed them for doing so. Had it notbeen that the noise made by the Turks had given the alarm so long beforethey reached the spot the work might have been completed. As it was,they had performed but a small portion of it when an officer ran in tosay that they must at once come up, as the party could no longer keepback the swarming throng of the enemy. Colonel Douglas, who was incommand, cheered on his hardly-pressed men, who had found the resistanceof the French so desperate that they had been unable to drive them outfrom their advanced trench.
Lieutenant Knight, exhausted by the loss of blood, and his efforts toaid the pioneers, had to be assisted from the gallery and carried off bythe seamen. Major Oldfield, who commanded the marines of _Theseus_, waskilled, with two of his men. Mr. Janverin, midshipman of the _Tigre_,and eleven men were wounded. Beatty, and Forbes, a midshipman of the_Theseus_, were both slightly wounded, as were five marines of thatship, and a seaman and two marines of the _Alliance_. As soon as theparty began to draw off, a heavy fire was opened on the French by theTurkish troops on the wall. The batteries opened with renewed vigour,while the bugles sounded to order the retreat of the two Turkish corps.All gained the gates unmolested. The Turks were in high spirits.According to their custom at the time, they had cut off the heads oftheir fallen foes and brought in sixty of these trophies.
The French loss had been considerably greater, for from the desperatenature of the fighting the Turks had been unable to decapitate thegreater part of their fallen foes. In addition to the heads they alsobrought in a great number of muskets and some intrenching tools. Thelast were an extremely valuable prize, as the garrison had been muchhampered in their work by the small number of available picks andshovels. Although, so far as the main object of the sortie, it had beena failure, the result was, upon the whole, a satisfactory one. The Turkshad met the French in fair fight, and had held their own against them,and they were so pleased that during the rest of the siege they neveronce wavered. The attack, too, showed the French that their enemy wasnot to be despised, and compelled them to take much greater precautionsthan before, and to maintain, at all times, a strong force in theiradvanced trenches.
On the 25th a tremendous explosion was heard, and the troops from allquarters rushed towards the tower to repel the expected assault. Had themine been carried a few feet farther, the whole tower would have beendestroyed, but the French miners had come across a vault whichprojected a little distance beyond the tower above it, and believingthat its wall was that of the tower itself, they had placed the chargeagainst it. Although therefore a partial failure, the effect wastremendous. A portion of the outer wall of the tower was blown down,some two hundred Turks, who formed its garrison, and some pieces ofcannon, were buried in the ruins. A small party of French rushed forwardbefore the smoke had cleared away and established themselves in thelower stories. The Turks, however, rallied very quickly from the shock,and opened so tremendous a fire from the walls, aided by the cross-firefrom the ships, that no reinforcements could reach the party in thetower, and the next morning early they evacuated the place, which wasrendered untenable by the fire of the Turks in the story above them.
So soon as they had left the building the enemy concentrated theirbatteries upon it. At the sound of the explosion Sir Sidney Smith, withthe sailors and marines of his guard, at once rushed through the streetsto the tower.
"Bravo, the Turks!" Wilkinson exclaimed, as he and Edgar ran along bythe side of the sailors. "Listen to their musketry fire! It is clearthat they are standing their ground anyhow, and that there is no panicthis time."
Sir Sidney was greatly relieved when, on his arrival at the tower, hefound that, although shaken and shattered, it still stood an obstacle toan entry into the town. He went along the wall, warmly praising theTurkish officers and men for their courage.
"That is a weight off my mind, colonel," he said to Phelypeaux. "I havebeen scarcely able to close an eye for the last week. That mine has beena perfect nightmare to me. There was no saying when it was going toexplode, and although the Turks have worked hard at that countermine weset them to dig, I had little hope that you would be in time, as you hadto take it right under the foundations of the tower. I think that wemust congratulate ourselves heartily that it has been no worse."
"I think so, indeed, Sir Sidney. The Turks have certainly behavedadmirably to-day. I thought they would when they once got over theiridea that the French were invincible. They have always proved themselvessplendid soldiers when well led, and I have no doubt the example of yourmen, and their carelessness of danger, have animated them with adetermination to show that they too can fight."
From the time of their entering Palestine the French had been amplysupplied with provisions of all sorts by the natives. As soon as hecrossed the frontier from Egypt, Bonaparte had sent proclamationsbroadcast among the people. A large proportion of the inhabitants of thehill country were Christians, and the assurances that he came to freethem from the domination of the Turks, just as he had freed Egypt, wasreceived with enthusiasm by the simple and ignorant people, who knewvery little of what was passing in the world around them. Theconsequence was, that as he marched north from Jaffa, deputations methim, comprising most of the leading men. These received presents, andpromises that they should never again fall under the dominion of theTurks; while they, on their part, promised to supply cattle, corn, wine,and wood to the utmost extent of their resources. These promises theyfaithfully kept, and also did good service in aiding the transport ofstores landed at Jaffa.
Sir Sidney now endeavoured to counteract the effect of Napoleon'sproclamations, and by means of native emissaries landed by the ship'sboats at various points along the coast, sent out a large quantity ofaddresses of his own, telling them that Napoleon was, it was true, atwar with the Sultan, but that this was no question of religion, and thathe was but endeavouring to pass through Syria, in order to make his wayto Europe, his retreat by sea having been cut off; and that he would beperfectly ready at any time to make terms with the Sultan, and wou
ldleave them, without a moment's thought, to the vengeance of the Turks,against whom they were now helping him. He added, that Djezzar Pasha,being convinced that they had been deceived by Bonaparte, and wereacting in ignorance of the true state of things, promised solemnly thatall who, now that the truth was told to them, withdrew their aid fromthe French, should be pardoned for the course that they had hithertotaken.
These papers soon bore fruit. The English were known to be favourable tothe Syrian Christians, and the assurances of Sir Sidney Smith had greatweight, and there was soon a sensible decrease in the amount ofprovisions and supplies brought into the French camp.
The breach widened under the heavy fire kept up continuously upon it bythe French batteries, and as it was evident that other assaults would bemade at that spot, the engineers began to throw out a ravelin, oradvanced work, from the foot of the walls on each side of the breach, soas to take any assaulting party in flank. On the 1st of May the French,thinking that the breach must now be practicable, advanced for thefourth time.
A heavy gale had blown all day, the ships of war and gun-boats wererolling heavily at their anchorage, and it was doubtless thought thatthey would be unable to use their guns. In the afternoon, therefore, abody of men ran forward with six scaling-ladders; crossing the moat asbefore, they planted their ladders and attempted to mount the breach.They were, however, assailed by so heavy a fire of musketry from theTurks that the leading party were literally swept away. In spite of theheavy weather, the ships joined their fire to that of the batteries, anda storm of shot and shell was rained upon the trenches, and the 2000 menwho had been seen to advance in readiness for the assault, finding itimpossible to issue from their shelter, retired to their camp. Themarines of the two men-of-war had manned the new works, and their firecontributed much to the repulse of the French.
Sir Sidney Smith, in his despatches home, expressed his regret at theheavy loss of life encountered by the French in their desperate attemptsto perform the impossible feat of entering by a breach that could onlybe reached by scaling-ladders. The point of attack had certainly beenbadly chosen, for, while the masonry of the upper chamber tower was veryrotten, that of the lower part was excellent; whereas the wallsthemselves were, in most places, badly built, and could have beendemolished in a very short time by the heavy guns the French now had intheir batteries. Thirty of these had been landed at Jaffa, and broughtup to the front.
In addition to the sortie of the 16th April, Sir Sidney Smith kept thebesiegers constantly on the alert by landing parties from the ships'boats on the flanks of their lines of trenches. The attacks weresometimes pushed home, the earthworks were overthrown, the fascinescarried off for use in the redoubts, guns spiked, and intrenching toolscaptured, and these attacks greatly added to the labour imposed upon thebesiegers, who were compelled not only to keep strong bodies in theadvanced trenches but to defend the whole line of attack against flanksurprises by their enterprising foes.
The Turks vied with the British in activity, making frequent nightattacks on the trenches, and generally succeeding in carrying off anumber of fascines, which were greatly needed, and were of specialutility in the construction of the ravelin. The day after the repulse ofthe fourth attack the garrison suffered a heavy loss in the death ofColonel Phelypeaux, who died of fever brought on by want of rest andexposure to the sun. On the same day another, and almost as serious aloss, was sustained, for Captain Wilmot was killed by a musket shotwhile in the act of mounting a gun in the breach.
The midshipmen had, two days before, lost one of their comrades namedMorris, who, with three seamen, was killed in one of the sorties, eightother blue-jackets of the _Tigre_ being wounded at the same time. On thenight of the 2nd of May the enemy made two desperate attempts to capturethe English ravelins, but the marines in charge, aided by the fire fromthe walls and ships, held their ground, and repulsed the French withmuch loss. Every day the fighting increased in fury. Between the 1st and9th the French made no less than five attacks upon the breach; thesewere all beaten off with very heavy loss; while the defenders, on theirpart, made frequent sorties to compel the assailants to stand on thedefensive, and to interfere with their attempts to carry the approachesup to the foot of the walls.
The fire of the vessels was still maintained, but the besiegers had soraised and strengthened the earthworks protecting their traverses andtrenches that they were now able to go backwards and forwards to thefront with but little danger from the ships' fire.
Edgar had now lost the companionship both of Condor and Wilkinson. Thesehad both gone back to their ship, for the death of Morris and thewounding of Forbes and Lieutenant Knight had left the ship short ofofficers. Condor acted as junior lieutenant until the latter was fit forservice again, and both he and Wilkinson took part in the boat attacksand the sorties from the town. Edgar was therefore now in command of theblue-jackets on shore, who were held always in readiness to run to theaid of the garrison at any spot where there might be sudden danger.
It was believed that the French were again mining in several places, andalthough Colonel Douglas, who had succeeded Phelypeaux in command of theengineering operations, set parties at work to drive countermines, thework progressed slowly, and it was difficult to ascertain the precisedirection in which the enemy were driving their galleries. Edgar stillacted as interpreter to Sir Sidney Smith, and was the bearer of hisorders to the Turkish officers. He was very glad that it was but seldomthat he was called upon to accompany his chief in his visits to thetower, for the stench here from the unburied bodies of the French and ofthe Turks overwhelmed by the explosion was overpowering. Numbers of theTurks stationed here were attacked by mortal illness, others becamedelirious, and it was necessary to change the force holding it at veryfrequent intervals.
On the evening of the 7th of May there was immense satisfaction in thetown, as a number of sail were seen on the horizon. It was certain thatthis was the force under Hassan Bey, which had been originally intendedfor Egypt, but had been diverted from its course by Sir Sidney Smith'sorders. Its arrival had been anxiously looked for during the last month,but it had been detained by calms and other causes at Rhodes, and it wasonly a portion of the force that now, on the fifty-first day of thesiege, made its appearance.
From the enemy's camp on the hills the fleet was made out as soon asfrom the town, and the effect was in a very short time apparent by thefire of the enemy's batteries being redoubled, and it was apparent thatBonaparte had determined to make a great effort to capture the townbefore the arrival of the reinforcements; and in a short time a greatcolumn was seen advancing to the attack.
Two of the _Tigre's_ 68-pounders, mounted on native craft lying in thelittle port near the water-gate, opened upon them with shells, while twoguns, manned by British sailors, one on the castle of the lighthouse,the other on one of the ravelins, poured grape into them. But the columnmoved on. The tremendous cannonade from their batteries overpowered thatfrom the guns on the walls, and they suffered but little from the firefrom the ravelins, as they had, the night before, constructed twobreastworks from the end of their trenches to the breach, the materialsused being sandbags and the bodies of their own slain.
In spite of the efforts of the defenders the French effected a lodgmentin the tower. Its upper story had now been entirely destroyed by theenemy's fire, and the fragments had so increased the heap at the foot ofthe breach that the assailants were able to mount without the use ofladders. This was the most critical moment in the siege.
Hassan's troops were already in their boats, and were rowing to shore.
"Run down to the landing-place, Mr. Blagrove," Sir Sidney said, "take mygig, and row out to meet the boats, and order them to come round to theport here, instead of landing at the other end of the town. There is nota moment to be lost; the Turks are losing heart."
Edgar had just brought up the little party of sailors, and leaving themto the leading of the petty officer with them, ran down at the top ofhis speed to the landing-place. The gig's crew were standi
ng near theboat, listening anxiously to the terrible din of the conflict.
"Jump in, men, and row for your lives!" Edgar exclaimed; "every minuteis of consequence. The French will be in the town in five minutes. Iwant to meet the boats, coxswain."
The sailors, who had already guessed that his errand was urgent by thespeed at which Edgar dashed down to the boat, stretched themselves totheir oars and rowed as if racing, and met the Turkish boats a quarterof a mile from the shore.
"I am sent by the commander-in-chief, Sir Sidney Smith, to order you torow round to the mole and land there. Order the men to row theirhardest. Every moment is of consequence. The French are on the point ofentering the town."
At once the flotilla of boats changed its course, the soldiers cheered,filled with the excitement of the moment, and the sailors tugged attheir oars; and, headed by the gig, in ten minutes the boats reached thelanding-place by the mole, and as the troops leaped out, Edgar, burningwith impatience and anxiety, led them to the breach. It was still held.Some of the Turks, as the French entered the tower, had been seized witha panic and fled, but a few remained at their post. While some hurleddown stones from above on to the column ascending the breach, others metthem hand to hand at the top of the heap. Here Sir Sidney Smith himselftook his place with three or four of his officers and the handful ofblue-jackets.
The combat was a desperate one. The swords of the officers, thecutlasses of the sailors, the pikes of the Turks, clashed against thebayonets of the French. Soon an important ally arrived. The news hadspeedily reached Djezzar that Sir Sidney and his officers werethemselves defending the breach. The old pasha had hitherto taken nopersonal part in the conflict, but had, as was the Turkish custom,remained seated on his divan every day, receiving reports from hisofficers, giving audience to the soldiers who brought in the heads ofenemies, and rewarding them for their valour. Now, however, he leapt tohis feet, seized his sabre, and ran to the breach, shouting to thesoldiers to follow him. On his arrival at the scene of conflict herushed forward and pulled Sir Sidney and his officers forcibly back fromthe front line.
"You must not throw away your lives," he said; "if my English friendsare killed, all is lost."
Fortunately, the shouts of the pasha, as he ran, caused a number ofsoldiers to follow him, and these now threw themselves into the fray,and maintained the defence until Edgar ran up with the soldiers who hadjust landed.
The reinforcements, as they arrived, were greeted with enthusiasticshouts from the inhabitants, numbers of whom, men and women, hadassembled at the landing-place on hearing of the approach of the boats.The garrison, reanimated by the succour, ran also to the breach, and thecombat was now so stoutly maintained that Sir Sidney was able to retirewith the pasha, to whom he proposed that one of the newly-arrivedregiments, a thousand strong, armed with bayonets and disciplined in theEuropean method, should make a sally, take the enemy in flank, or compelthem to draw off.
The pasha at once assented, a gate was opened, and the Turks rushed out.Their orders were to carry the enemy's nearest trench, and to shift thegabions and fascines to the outward side, and to maintain themselvesthere. The new arrivals, however, were not yet inured to fighting, andas the French batteries opened upon them, and the soldiers, leaping onto the parapets, poured volley after volley into their midst, theyfaltered, and presently turned and fled back to the gate, their retreatbeing protected by heavy discharges of grape from the 68-pounders in theport. The sortie, however, had its effect. The French had sufferedheavily from the flanking fire as soon as they had shown themselves onthe parapet, and the assaulting column, knowing from the din of battlethat a serious sortie had been made, fell back from the breach, theirretreat being hastened by the discharge of a number of hand-grenades bya midshipman of the _Theseus_ on the top of the tower.
But the assault was not yet over. Napoleon, with several of his generalsand a group of aides-de-camp, had been watching the fight from aneminence known as Richard Coeur de Lion's Mount, and had beencompelled to shift their position several times by shells thrown amongthem from the ships. Their movements were clearly visible with afield-glass. Bonaparte was seen to wave his hand violently, and anaide-de-camp galloped off at the top of his speed. Edgar, who wasstanding near Sir Sidney Smith, was watching them through a telescope,and had informed Sir Sidney of what he had seen.
"Doubtless he is ordering up reinforcements. We shall have more fightingyet."
He then held a consultation with the pasha, who proposed that this timethey should carry out a favourite Turkish method of defence--allow theenemy to enter the town, and then fall upon them. The steps were removedfrom the walls near the tower, so that the French, when they issued fromthe top of the ruined building, would be obliged to follow along thewall, and to descend by those leading into the pasha's garden. Here twohundred Albanians, the survivors of a corps a thousand strong who hadgreatly distinguished themselves in the sorties, were stationed, whileall the garrison that could be spared from other points, together withthe newly-arrived troops, were close at hand. The Turks were withdrawnfrom the breach and tower, and the attack was confidently awaited.
It came just before sunset, when a massive column advanced to thebreach. No resistance was offered. They soon appeared at the top of theruin, which was now no higher than the wall itself, and moved along therampart. When they came to the steps leading into the pasha's garden, aportion of them descended, while the main body moved farther on, andmade their way by other steps down into the town. Then suddenly thesilence that had reigned was broken by an outburst of wild shouts andvolleys of musketry, while from the head of every street leading intothe open space into which the French had descended, the Turkish troopsburst out. In the pasha's garden the Albanians threw themselves, sabrein one hand and dagger in the other, upon the party there, scarce one ofwhom succeeded in escaping, General Rombaud, who commanded, being amongthe slain, and General Lazeley being carried off wounded.
The din of battle at the main scene of conflict was heightened by thebabel of shouts and screams that rose throughout the town. No wordwhatever of the intention to allow the French to enter the place hadbeen spoken, for it was known that the French had emissaries in theplace, who would in some way contrive to inform them of what was goingon there, and the success of the plan would have been imperilled had theintentions of the defenders been made known to the French. The latterfought with their usual determination and valour, but were unable towithstand the fury with which they were attacked from all sides, andstep by step were driven back to the breach. Thus, after twenty-fourhours of fighting, the position of the parties remained unaltered.
Bonaparte, in person, had taken part in the assault, and when the troopsentered the town had taken up his place at the top of the tower. Kleber,who commanded the assault, had fought with his accustomed bravery at thehead of his troops, and for a time, animated by his voice and example,his soldiers had resisted the fiercest efforts of the Turks. But evenhis efforts could not for long maintain the unequal conflict. As thetroops fell back along the walls towards the breach, the guns fromelevated positions mowed them down, many of the shot striking the groupround Bonaparte himself. He remained still and immovable, until almostdragged away, seeming to be petrified by this terrible disaster, when hedeemed that, after all his sacrifices and losses, success was at lastwithin his grasp.
During the siege he had lost five thousand men. The hospitals werecrowded with sick. The tribesmen had ceased to send in provisions. Evenshould he succeed in taking the town after another assault, his forcewould be so far reduced as to be incapable of further action. Itsstrength had already fallen from sixteen thousand to eight thousand men.Ten of his generals had been killed. Of his eight aides-de-camp, fourhad been killed and two severely wounded.
The next evening the Turkish regiment that had made a sortie on thenight of their landing, but had been unable to face the tremendous firepoured upon them, begged that they might be allowed to go out again inorder to retrieve themselves.
Permiss
ion was given, and their colonel was told to make himself masterof the nearest line of the enemies' trenches, and to hold them asdirected on the occasion of his previous sortie. The work was gallantlydone. Unheeding the enemy's fire the Turks dashed forward with loudshouts, leapt into the trenches, and bayonetted their defenders; butinstead of setting to work to move the materials of the parapet acrossto the other side, carried away by their enthusiasm they rushed forward,and burst their way into the second parallel. So furiously did theyfight that Kleber's division, which was again advancing to make a finalattempt to carry the breach, had to be diverted from its object toresist the impetuous Turks. For three hours the conflict raged, andalthough the assailants were greatly outnumbered they held their groundnobly. Large numbers fell upon both sides, but at last the Turks wereforced to fall back again into the town.
The desperate valour with which they had just fought hand to handwithout any advantage of position showed the French troops how hopelesswas the task before them; and Kleber's grenadiers, who had been victorsin unnumbered battles, now positively refused to attempt the ascent ofthe fatal breach again.
Receiving news the next day that three French frigates had just arrivedoff Caesarea, Sir Sidney determined to go in pursuit of them, but thepasha was so unwilling that the whole force of British should departthat he sent off the _Theseus_ with two Turkish frigates that hadaccompanied the vessels bringing the troops.
The voyage was an unfortunate one. Captain Miller, as the supply of shotand shell on board the men-of-war was almost exhausted, had for sometime kept his men, when not otherwise engaged at work, collecting Frenchshell which had fallen, without bursting, in the town. A number ofthese he had fitted with fresh fuses, and a party of sailors wereengaged in preparing the others for service, when from some unknowncause one of them exploded, and this was instantly followed by thebursting of seventy others. The men had been at work on the fore part ofthe poop, near Captain Miller's cabin, and he and twenty-five men wereat once killed and the vessel set on fire in five places. Mr. England,the first lieutenant, at once set the crew to work, and by greatexertions succeeded in extinguishing the flames. He then continued thevoyage, and drove the three French frigates to sea.
The loss of Captain Miller, who had been indefatigable in his exertionsduring the siege, was a great blow to Sir Sidney Smith. He appointedLieutenant Canes, who had been in charge of the _Tigre_ during hisabsence on shore, to the command of the _Theseus_, and transferredLieutenant England to the place of first lieutenant of the _Tigre_.
It was generally felt that after the tremendous loss he suffered in thelast of the eleven assaults made by the French that Napoleon could nolonger continue the siege. Not only had the numerical loss been enormousin proportion to the strength of the army, but it had fallen upon hisbest troops. The artillery had suffered terribly, the grenadiers hadbeen almost annihilated, and as the assaults had always been headed bypicked regiments, the backbone of the army was gone. It was soonascertained indeed that Napoleon was sending great convoys of sick,wounded, and stores down the coast, and on the 20th the siege wasraised, and the French marched away.