A DESPERATE SIEGE.
Just as day began to break, the gates were opened, and the columns moved
out one after the other. The order that the strictest silence was to be
observed was obeyed by the sailors and marines; but the Turks, who were
wrought up to a pitch of enthusiasm, made so great a noise that the
moment they issued from the gate shots were fired by the advanced
pickets, and a few seconds later the roll of drums in the French lines
broke out, and it was clear that the whole camp was alarmed. Sir Sidney
Smith uttered an exclamation of anger. As concealment was useless, he
then sent the two midshipmen to order all the batteries to open fire
upon the French trenches, and as the first gun boomed out the ships and
gun-boats on both flanks also opened fire, and the trenches by which the
French must advance from the village were swept by a storm of shot. The
French batteries joined in the din, while the infantry in the advanced
trenches opened a heavy musketry fire.
"By Jove, the Turks mean fighting this time!" Wilkinson said, when he
and 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 was
now stealing over the sky. Undaunted by the heavy fire of the French,
the Turks rushed at the earthworks, scaled them, and engaged in a
desperate hand-to-hand fight with their defenders. But the chief
attention of the little group on the tower, where Captain Wilmot and
Colonel Phelypeaux had also stationed themselves, was riveted upon the
fight going on in front of them. Already the French were thronging down
from their trenches, and the blue-jackets and marines were engaged in a
fierce fight. Knight, second of the _Tigre_, received two balls in his
left arm as he advanced, but upon arriving at the top of the shaft of
the 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 it
was not. Lieutenant Knight and the little party of sailors worked
desperately to pull down the props that supported the roof of the
gallery, but they had little time allowed them for doing so. Had it not
been that the noise made by the Turks had given the alarm so long before
they 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 to
say that they must at once come up, as the party could no longer keep
back the swarming throng of the enemy. Colonel Douglas, who was in
command, cheered on his hardly-pressed men, who had found the resistance
of the French so desperate that they had been unable to drive them out
from their advanced trench.
Lieutenant Knight, exhausted by the loss of blood, and his efforts to
aid the pioneers, had to be assisted from the gallery and carried off by
the seamen. Major Oldfield, who commanded the marines of _Theseus_, was
killed, 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 that
ship, and a seaman and two marines of the _Alliance_. As soon as the
party began to draw off, a heavy fire was opened on the French by the
Turkish 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 of
their fallen foes and brought in sixty of these trophies.
The French loss had been considerably greater, for from the desperate
nature of the fighting the Turks had been unable to decapitate the
greater part of their fallen foes. In addition to the heads they also
brought in a great number of muskets and some intrenching tools. The
last were an extremely valuable prize, as the garrison had been much
hampered in their work by the small number of available picks and
shovels. Although, so far as the main object of the sortie, it had been
a failure, the result was, upon the whole, a satisfactory one. The Turks
had 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 never
once wavered. The attack, too, showed the French that their enemy was
not to be despised, and compelled them to take much greater precautions
than before, and to maintain, at all times, a strong force in their
advanced trenches.
On the 25th a tremendous explosion was heard, and the troops from all
quarters rushed towards the tower to repel the expected assault. Had the
mine been carried a few feet farther, the whole tower would have been
destroyed, but the French miners had come across a vault which
projected a little distance beyond the tower above it, and believing
that its wall was that of the tower itself, they had placed the charge
against it. Although therefore a partial failure, the effect was
tremendous. A portion of the outer wall of the tower was blown down,
some two hundred Turks, who formed its garrison, and some pieces of
cannon, were buried in the ruins. A small party of French rushed forward
before the smoke had cleared away and established themselves in the
lower stories. The Turks, however, rallied very quickly from the shock,
and opened so tremendous a fire from the walls, aided by the cross-fire
from the ships, that no reinforcements could reach the party in the
tower, and the next morning early they evacuated the place, which was
rendered untenable by the fire of the Turks in the story above them.
So soon as they had left the building the enemy concentrated their
batteries upon it. At the sound of the explosion Sir Sidney Smith, with
the sailors and marines of his guard, at once rushed through the streets
to the tower.
"Bravo, the Turks!" Wilkinson exclaimed, as he and Edgar ran along by
the side of the sailors. "Listen to their musketry fire! It is clear
that they are standing their ground anyhow, and that there is no panic
this time."
Sir Sidney was greatly relieved when, on his arrival at the tower, he
found that, although shaken and shattered, it still stood an obstacle to
an entry into the town. He went along the wall, warmly praising the
Turkish officers and men for their courage.
"That is a weight off my mind, colonel," he said to Phelypeaux. "I have
been scarcely able to close an eye for the last week. That mine has been
a perfect nightmare to me. There was no saying when it was going to
explode, and although the Turks have worked hard at that countermine we
set them to dig, I had little hope that you would be in time, as you had
to take it right under the foundations of the tower. I think that we
must congratulate ourselves heartily that it has been no worse."
"I think so, indeed, Sir Sidney. The Turks have certainly behaved
admirably to-day. I thought they would when they once got over their
idea that the French were invincible. They have always proved themselves
splendid soldiers when well led, and I have no doubt the example of your
men, and their carelessness of danger, have animated them with a
determination to show that they too can fight."
From the time of their entering Palestine the French had been amply
supplied with provisions of all sorts by the natives. As soon as he
crossed the frontier from Egypt, Bonaparte had sent proclamations
broadcast among the people. A large proportion of the inhabitants of the
hill country were Christians, and the assurances that he came to free
them from the domination of the Turks, just as he had freed Egypt, was
received with enthusiasm by the simple and ignorant people, who knew
very little of what was passing in the world around them. The
consequence was, that as he marched north from Jaffa, deputations met
him, comprising most of the leading men. These received presents, and
promises that they should never again fall under the dominion of the
Turks; while they, on their part, promised to supply cattle, corn, wine,
and wood to the utmost extent of their resources. These promises they
faithfully kept, and also did good service in aiding the transport of
stores landed at Jaffa.
Sir Sidney now endeavoured to counteract the effect of Napoleon's
proclamations, and by means of native emissaries landed by the ship's
boats at various points along the coast, sent out a large quantity of
addresses of his own, telling them that Napoleon was, it was true, at
war with the Sultan, but that this was no question of religion, and that
he was but endeavouring to pass through Syria, in order to make his way
to Europe, his retreat by sea having been cut off; and that he would be
perfectly ready at any time to make terms with the Sultan, and would
leave 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 were
acting in ignorance of the true state of things, promised solemnly that
all who, now that the truth was told to them, withdrew their aid from
the French, should be pardoned for the course that they had hitherto
taken.
These papers soon bore fruit. The English were known to be favourable to
the Syrian Christians, and the assurances of Sir Sidney Smith had great
weight, and there was soon a sensible decrease in the amount of
provisions and supplies brought into the French camp.
The breach widened under the heavy fire kept up continuously upon it by
the French batteries, and as it was evident that other assaults would be
made at that spot, the engineers began to throw out a ravelin, or
advanced work, from the foot of the walls on each side of the breach, so
as to take any assaulting party in flank. On the 1st of May the French,
thinking that the breach must now be practicable, advanced for the
fourth time.
A heavy gale had blown all day, the ships of war and gun-boats were
rolling heavily at their anchorage, and it was doubtless thought that
they would be unable to use their guns. In the afternoon, therefore, a
body of men ran forward with six scaling-ladders; crossing the moat as
before, they planted their ladders and attempted to mount the breach.
They were, however, assailed by so heavy a fire of musketry from the
Turks that the leading party were literally swept away. In spite of the
heavy weather, the ships joined their fire to that of the batteries, and
a storm of shot and shell was rained upon the trenches, and the 2000 men
who had been seen to advance in readiness for the assault, finding it
impossible to issue from their shelter, retired to their camp. The
marines of the two men-of-war had manned the new works, and their fire
contributed much to the repulse of the French.
Sir Sidney Smith, in his despatches home, expressed his regret at the
heavy loss of life encountered by the French in their desperate attempts
to perform the impossible feat of entering by a breach that could only
be reached by scaling-ladders. The point of attack had certainly been
badly chosen, for, while the masonry of the upper chamber tower was very
rotten, that of the lower part was excellent; whereas the walls
themselves were, in most places, badly built, and could have been
demolished in a very short time by the heavy guns the French now had in
their batteries. Thirty of these had been landed at Jaffa, and brought
up to the front.
In addition to the sortie of the 16th April, Sir Sidney Smith kept the
besiegers constantly on the alert by landing parties from the ships'
boats on the flanks of their lines of trenches. The attacks were
sometimes pushed home, the earthworks were overthrown, the fascines
carried off for use in the redoubts, guns spiked, and intrenching tools
captured, and these attacks greatly added to the labour imposed upon the
besiegers, who were compelled not only to keep strong bodies in the
advanced trenches but to defend the whole line of attack against flank
surprises by their enterprising foes.
The Turks vied with the British in activity, making frequent night
attacks on the trenches, and generally succeeding in carrying off a
number of fascines, which were greatly needed, and were of special
utility in the construction of the ravelin. The day after the repulse of
the fourth attack the garrison suffered a heavy loss in the death of
Colonel Phelypeaux, who died of fever brought on by want of rest and
exposure to the sun. On the same day another, and almost as serious a
loss, was sustained, for Captain Wilmot was killed by a musket shot
while in the act of mounting a gun in the breach.
The midshipmen had, two days before, lost one of their comrades named
Morris, who, with three seamen, was killed in one of the sorties, eight
other blue-jackets of the _Tigre_ being wounded at the same time. On the
night of the 2nd of May the enemy made two desperate attempts to capture
the English ravelins, but the marines in charge, aided by the fire from
the walls and ships, held their ground, and repulsed the French with
much loss. Every day the fighting increased in fury. Between the 1st and
9th the French made no less than five attacks upon the breach; these
were all beaten off with very heavy loss; while the defenders, on their
part, made frequent sorties to compel the assailants to stand on the
defensive, and to interfere with their attempts to carry the approaches
up to the foot of the walls.
The fire of the vessels was still maintained, but the besiegers had so
raised and strengthened the earthworks protecting their traverses and
trenches that they were now able to go backwards and forwards to the
front with but little danger from the ships' fire.
Edgar had now lost the companionship both of Condor and Wilkinson. These
had both gone back to their ship, for the death of Morris and the
wounding of Forbes and Lieutenant Knight had left the ship short of
officers. Condor acted as junior lieutenant until the latter was fit for
service again, and both he and Wilkinson took part in the boat attacks
and the sorties from the town. Edgar was therefore now in command of the
blue-jackets on shore, who were held always in readiness to run to the
aid of the garrison at any spot where there might be sudden danger.
It was believed that the French were again mining in several places, and
although Colonel Douglas, who had succeeded Phelypeaux in command of the
engineering operations, set parties at work to drive countermines, the
work progressed slowly, and it was difficult to ascertain the precise
direction in which the enemy were driving their galleries. Edgar still
acted as interpreter to Sir Sidney Smith, and was the bearer of his
orders to the Turkish officers. He was very glad that it was but seldom
that he was called upon to accompany his chief in his visits to the
tower, for the stench here from the unburied bodies of the French and of
the Turks overwhelmed by the explosion was overpowering. Numbers of the
Turks stationed here were attacked by mortal illness, others became
delirious, and it was necessary to change the force holding it at very
frequent intervals.
On the evening of the 7th of May there was immense satisfaction in the
town, as a number of sail were seen on the horizon. It was certain that
this was the force under Hassan Bey, which had been originally intended
for Egypt, but had been diverted from its course by Sir Sidney Smith's
orders. 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 was
only a portion of the force that now, on the fifty-first day of the
siege, made its appearance.
From the enemy's camp on the hills the fleet was made out as soon as
from the town, and the effect was in a very short time apparent by the
fire of the enemy's batteries being redoubled, and it was apparent that
Bonaparte had determined to make a great effort to capture the town
before the arrival of the reinforcements; and in a short time a great
column was seen advancing to the attack.
Two of the _Tigre's_ 68-pounders, mounted on native craft lying in the
little port near the water-gate, opened upon them with shells, while two
guns, manned by British sailors, one on the castle of the lighthouse,
the other on one of the ravelins, poured grape into them. But the column
moved on. The tremendous cannonade from their batteries overpowered that
from the guns on the walls, and they suffered but little from the fire
from the ravelins, as they had, the night before, constructed two
breastworks from the end of their trenches to the breach, the materials
used being sandbags and the bodies of their own slain.
In spite of the efforts of the defenders the French effected a lodgment
in the tower. Its upper story had now been entirely destroyed by the
enemy's fire, and the fragments had so increased the heap at the foot of
the breach that the assailants were able to mount without the use of
ladders. 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 my
gig, and row out to meet the boats, and order them to come round to the
port here, instead of landing at the other end of the town. There is not
a moment to be lost; the Turks are losing heart."
Edgar had just brought up the little party of sailors, and leaving them
to the leading of the petty officer with them, ran down at the top of
his speed to the landing-place. The gig's crew were standing near the
boat, listening anxiously to the terrible din of the conflict.
"Jump in, men, and row for your lives!" Edgar exclaimed; "every minute
is of consequence. The French will be in the town in five minutes. I
want to meet the boats, coxswain."
The sailors, who had already guessed that his errand was urgent by the
speed at which Edgar dashed down to the boat, stretched themselves to
their oars and rowed as if racing, and met the Turkish boats a quarter
of a mile from the shore.
"I am sent by the commander-in-chief, Sir Sidney Smith, to order you to
row round to the mole and land there. Order the men to row their
hardest. Every moment is of consequence. The French are on the point of
entering 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 at
their oars; and, headed by the gig, in ten minutes the boats reached the
landing-place by the mole, and as the troops leaped out, Edgar, burning
with 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 with
a panic and fled, but a few remained at their post. While some hurled
down stones from above on to the column ascending the breach, others met
them hand to hand at the top of the heap. Here Sir Sidney Smith himself
took his place with three or four of his officers and the handful of
blue-jackets.
The combat was a desperate one. The swords of the officers, the
cutlasses of the sailors, the pikes of the Turks, clashed against the
bayonets of the French. Soon an important ally arrived. The news had
speedily reached Djezzar that Sir Sidney and his officers were
themselves defending the breach. The old pasha had hitherto taken no
personal part in the conflict, but had, as was the Turkish custom,
remained seated on his divan every day, receiving reports from his
officers, giving audience to the soldiers who brought in the heads of
enemies, and rewarding them for their valour. Now, however, he leapt to
his feet, seized his sabre, and ran to the breach, shouting to the
soldiers to follow him. On his arrival at the scene of conflict he
rushed forward and pulled Sir Sidney and his officers forcibly back from
the front line.
"You must not throw away your lives," he said; "if my English friends
are killed, all is lost."
Fortunately, the shouts of the pasha, as he ran, caused a number of
soldiers to follow him, and these now threw themselves into the fray,
and maintained the defence until Edgar ran up with the soldiers who had
just landed.
The reinforcements, as they arrived, were greeted with enthusiastic
shouts from the inhabitants, numbers of whom, men and women, had
assembled at the landing-place on hearing of the approach of the boats.
The garrison, reanimated by the succour, ran also to the breach, and the
combat was now so stoutly maintained that Sir Sidney was able to retire
with the pasha, to whom he proposed that one of the newly-arrived
regiments, a thousand strong, armed with bayonets and disciplined in the
European method, should make a sally, take the enemy in flank, or compel
them 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 the
gabions and fascines to the outward side, and to maintain themselves
there. The new arrivals, however, were not yet inured to fighting, and
as the French batteries opened upon them, and the soldiers, leaping on
to the parapets, poured volley after volley into their midst, they
faltered, and presently turned and fled back to the gate, their retreat
being protected by heavy discharges of grape from the 68-pounders in the
port. The sortie, however, had its effect. The French had suffered
heavily from the flanking fire as soon as they had shown themselves on
the parapet, and the assaulting column, knowing from the din of battle
that a serious sortie had been made, fell back from the breach, their
retreat being hastened by the discharge of a number of hand-grenades by
a midshipman of the _Theseus_ on the top of the tower.
But the assault was not yet over. Napoleon, with several of his generals
and a group of aides-de-camp, had been watching the fight from an
eminence known as Richard Coeur de Lion's Mount, and had been
compelled to shift their position several times by shells thrown among
them from the ships. Their movements were clearly visible with a
field-glass. Bonaparte was seen to wave his hand violently, and an
aide-de-camp galloped off at the top of his speed. Edgar, who was
standing 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 fighting
yet."
He then held a consultation with the pasha, who proposed that this time
they should carry out a favourite Turkish method of defence--allow the
enemy to enter the town, and then fall upon them. The steps were removed
from the walls near the tower, so that the French, when they issued from
the top of the ruined building, would be obliged to follow along the
wall, and to descend by those leading into the pasha's garden. Here two
hundred Albanians, the survivors of a corps a thousand strong who had
greatly distinguished themselves in the sorties, were stationed, while
all the garrison that could be spared from other points, together with
the newly-arrived troops, were close at hand. The Turks were withdrawn
from the breach and tower, and the attack was confidently awaited.
It came just before sunset, when a massive column advanced to the
breach. No resistance was offered. They soon appeared at the top of the
ruin, which was now no higher than the wall itself, and moved along the
rampart. When they came to the steps leading into the pasha's garden, a
portion of them descended, while the main body moved farther on, and
made their way by other steps down into the town. Then suddenly the
silence that had reigned was broken by an outburst of wild shouts and
volleys of musketry, while from the head of every street leading into
the open space into which the French had descended, the Turkish troops
burst out. In the pasha's garden the Albanians threw themselves, sabre
in one hand and dagger in the other, upon the party there, scarce one of
whom succeeded in escaping, General Rombaud, who commanded, being among
the slain, and General Lazeley being carried off wounded.
The din of battle at the main scene of conflict was heightened by the
babel of shouts and screams that rose throughout the town. No word
whatever of the intention to allow the French to enter the place had
been spoken, for it was known that the French had emissaries in the
place, who would in some way contrive to inform them of what was going
on there, and the success of the plan would have been imperilled had the
intentions of the defenders been made known to the French. The latter
fought with their usual determination and valour, but were unable to
withstand the fury with which they were attacked from all sides, and
step by step were driven back to the breach. Thus, after twenty-four
hours of fighting, the position of the parties remained unaltered.
Bonaparte, in person, had taken part in the assault, and when the troops
entered 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 the
head of his troops, and for a time, animated by his voice and example,
his soldiers had resisted the fiercest efforts of the Turks. But even
his efforts could not for long maintain the unequal conflict. As the
troops fell back along the walls towards the breach, the guns from
elevated positions mowed them down, many of the shot striking the group
round Bonaparte himself. He remained still and immovable, until almost
dragged away, seeming to be petrified by this terrible disaster, when he
deemed that, after all his sacrifices and losses, success was at last
within his grasp.
During the siege he had lost five thousand men. The hospitals were
crowded with sick. The tribesmen had ceased to send in provisions. Even
should he succeed in taking the town after another assault, his force
would be so far reduced as to be incapable of further action. Its
strength had already fallen from sixteen thousand to eight thousand men.
Ten of his generals had been killed. Of his eight aides-de-camp, four
had been killed and two severely wounded.
The next evening the Turkish regiment that had made a sortie on the
night of their landing, but had been unable to face the tremendous fire
poured upon them, begged that they might be allowed to go out again in
order to retrieve themselves.
Permission was given, and their colonel was told to make himself master
of the nearest line of the enemies' trenches, and to hold them as
directed on the occasion of his previous sortie. The work was gallantly
done. Unheeding the enemy's fire the Turks dashed forward with loud
shouts, leapt into the trenches, and bayonetted their defenders; but
instead of setting to work to move the materials of the parapet across
to the other side, carried away by their enthusiasm they rushed forward,
and burst their way into the second parallel. So furiously did they
fight that Kleber's division, which was again advancing to make a final
attempt to carry the breach, had to be diverted from its object to
resist the impetuous Turks. For three hours the conflict raged, and
although the assailants were greatly outnumbered they held their ground
nobly. Large numbers fell upon both sides, but at last the Turks were
forced to fall back again into the town.
The desperate valour with which they had just fought hand to hand
without any advantage of position showed the French troops how hopeless
was the task before them; and Kleber's grenadiers, who had been victors
in unnumbered battles, now positively refused to attempt the ascent of
the fatal breach again.
Receiving news the next day that three French frigates had just arrived
off Caesarea, Sir Sidney determined to go in pursuit of them, but the
pasha was so unwilling that the whole force of British should depart
that he sent off the _Theseus_ with two Turkish frigates that had
accompanied the vessels bringing the troops.
The voyage was an unfortunate one. Captain Miller, as the supply of shot
and shell on board the men-of-war was almost exhausted, had for some
time kept his men, when not otherwise engaged at work, collecting French
shell which had fallen, without bursting, in the town. A number of
these he had fitted with fresh fuses, and a party of sailors were
engaged in preparing the others for service, when from some unknown
cause one of them exploded, and this was instantly followed by the
bursting of seventy others. The men had been at work on the fore part of
the poop, near Captain Miller's cabin, and he and twenty-five men were
at 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 great
exertions succeeded in extinguishing the flames. He then continued the
voyage, and drove the three French frigates to sea.
The loss of Captain Miller, who had been indefatigable in his exertions
during the siege, was a great blow to Sir Sidney Smith. He appointed
Lieutenant Canes, who had been in charge of the _Tigre_ during his
absence on shore, to the command of the _Theseus_, and transferred
Lieutenant England to the place of first lieutenant of the _Tigre_.
It was generally felt that after the tremendous loss he suffered in the
last of the eleven assaults made by the French that Napoleon could no
longer continue the siege. Not only had the numerical loss been enormous
in proportion to the strength of the army, but it had fallen upon his
best troops. The artillery had suffered terribly, the grenadiers had
been almost annihilated, and as the assaults had always been headed by
picked regiments, the backbone of the army was gone. It was soon
ascertained indeed that Napoleon was sending great convoys of sick,
wounded, and stores down the coast, and on the 20th the siege was
raised, and the French marched away.