On One Occasion That Some Turks Had Got
Within The Walls And Had Taken Post In A House, One Of
These valiant
females ran there with a spear and fought against the enemy, till
Mascarenhas came up with his reserve
And put them all to the sword.
Zofar used every effort and device to fill up the ditches and to batter
down the walls of the castle; but equal industry was exerted by the
besieged to repair the breaches and to clear out the ditches, the prime
gentry doing as much duty on those occasions as the private soldiers and
masons; repairing every night such parts of the walls and bastions as
had been ruined in the day.
Astonished to see all the defences thus restored, and angry at the
obstinate resistance of so small a garrison, Zofar made a furious
assault upon the castle, but had his head carried off by a cannon-ball.
"In this violent death he fulfilled the prediction of his mother at
Otranto, who having in vain endeavoured to prevail upon him to return
into the bosom of the church, used to superscribe her letters to him in
the following manner. To Khojah Zofar my son, at the gates of hell."
He was succeeded by his son Rumi Khan, who inherited his fortune and
command, and was as eager as his father to reduce the castle of Diu.
Being in great straits, Mascarenhas was under the necessity of applying
to the governor-general at Goa and the commanders of the neighbouring
garrisons for reinforcements, on which occasion a priest was employed,
who run great danger, as the sea was at this season scarcely navigable:
But then Portugal had some decii and reguli, while it now has only
the grief of wanting such patriots[366].
[Footnote 366:
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