Such As Happened To Have Skin Coats Escaped This Danger;
And As Mascarenhas Noticed This Circumstance, He Caused The Gilt
Leather Hangings Of His Apartments To Be Made Into Coats For His
Soldiers.
As the enemy had raised a mount near the castle which overlooked the
walls, whence they greatly annoyed the enemy, Don Juan and Don Pedro de
Almeyda sallied out with an hundred men and destroyed that work, killing
300 Moors.
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.
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