of the numerous assailants who had penetrated their works, throwing headlong from the wall such as had escaped the sword, insomuch that the bastion and the ditch below were heaped with dead bodies.  Rumi Khan spent the succeeding night in prayers and processions to propitiate Mahomet, and next morning renewed the assault with equal fury.  But after mounting the two bastions, he was at length forced to retreat with the loss of near 2000 men, among whom was Juzar Khan the Abyssinian general, who was succeeded in his command by his uncle of the same name.  In this action the Portuguese lost seven men.  Several other assaults were given with similar success.  In one of these the fire was so close and furious that several of the Portuguese who were clad in cotton garments had their clothes set on fire, on which they ran and dipt themselves in water, after which they returned to their posts.  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.  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.