In this he was overruled ruled by
Piali, who declared that he had not sufficient men to spare, and the
Knights of II Borgo would soon render the battery untenable even if they
should succeed in erecting it, which the Turkish admiral now considered
extremely doubtful. The siege of St. Elmo, which Mustafa had said would
last at the outside for five or six days, had now been in progress for four
weeks; and, although the fort was in a ruinous condition, nothing seemed
capable of daunting those invincible warriors by which it was held.
The position in St. Elmo now was that the Turks still held on to the
ravelin which they had captured; this they had built up to such a height
that they could look over the parapet of the fortress and shoot down with
arquebus fire any one whom they could see. Meanwhile the Turkish sappers
delved night and day in their endeavour to undermine the parapet, which, if
blown up, would give them free access to the interior of the fort; while
another party, by use of the yards of galleys and huge planks of wood,
busied themselves in constructing a bridge to connect the ravelin with the
parapet. Lamirande, one of the most active of the defenders of the fort,
viewed these preparations without undue alarm, as he was aware that, by the
nature of the ground, it would be almost impossible to excavate
sufficiently under the parapet to place an effective mine. As, however, the
sapping was causing the parapet to incline outwards, and it was possible
that it might almost at any moment fall over into the ditch, he caused a
second parapet to be erected inside the first and artillery to be mounted
thereon.
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