At Another Time Martin Botello Went Out With Ten Men To
Endeavour To Make Some Prisoners, To Procure Intelligence.
This party
fell upon a post of the enemy occupied by eighteen men, all of whom fled
except one Nubian, who bravely endeavoured to defend himself against
the whole eleven.
Botello closed with him, and finding him hard to
overcome while he touched the ground with his feet, raised him in his
arms as Hercules did Anteus, and carried him to the fort by main
strength. The assaults were frequently renewed, and the besieged were
worn out with fatigue and reduced to the last extremity by famine, being
forced to feed even upon naseous vermin. A crow or a vulture taken while
feeding upon the dead bodies was so great a dainty for the sick that it
sold for five crowns. Even the ammunition was almost spent. In this
extremity, the enemy gave a fresh assault and forced their way into the
bastion of St John, whence they were driven out. Scarcely had they
retired when the bastion blew up with a vast explosion, carrying up 73
of the garrison into the air, ten of whom came down alive. Among these
was Diego de Sotomayor, who fell into the fort with his spear still in
his hand. One soldier fell in a similar manner among the enemy, and was
immediately slain. It was no fable that armed men were seen in the air
on this occasion[367]. Foreseeing the danger, as he believed from the
retirement of the enemy so suddenly that they had secretly caused it to
be undermined, Mascarenhas gave orders for the Portuguese soldiers to
retire from the bastion; but one Reynoso prevented them from doing so,
unaware of what was intended, upbraiding them for cowardice.
[Footnote 367: This is an evident allusion of De Faria to the ridiculous
reports so often propagated among the Portuguese and Spaniards of those
days, of heavenly champions aiding them in battle against the
infidels. - E.]
Thirteen thousand of the enemy immediately attacked the breach which was
formed by the explosion, and were at first resisted only by five men,
till Mascarenhas came up with fifteen more. Even the women came forward
to assist in defending the breach: and the priest, who had returned
from carrying advice to the neighbouring Portuguese forts, appeared
carrying a crucifix aloft, and encouraging the men to behave themselves
manfully. After a long and furious contest, the enemy retired on the
approach of night, after losing 300 men, and Mascarenhas employed the
whole night in repairing the breach. The enemy renewed their attacks
every day, but with no better success, trusting to their vast
superiority in numbers, that they would at last wear out and destroy the
garrison. Rumi Khan began again to undermine the works, even piercing
through rocks that were in the way; but Mascarenhas by means of a
countermine disappointed his expectations, as the mine exploded back
upon the enemy and killed many of their own men.
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