Suddenly the system of warfare was changed.  We experienced no more assaults; and by night and day we continued our labours unimpeded.  Stranger still, when the troops advanced near the city, the walls were vacant, and no cannon was pointed against the intruders.  When these circumstances were reported to Raymond, he caused minute observations to be made as to what was doing within the walls, and when his scouts returned, reporting only the continued silence and desolation of the city, he commanded the army to be drawn out before the gates.  No one appeared on the walls; the very portals, though locked and barred, seemed unguarded; above, the many domes and glittering crescents pierced heaven; while the old walls, survivors of ages, with ivy-crowned tower and weed-tangled buttress, stood as rocks in an uninhabited waste.  From within the city neither shout nor cry, nor aught except the casual howling of a dog, broke the noon-day stillness.  Even our soldiers were awed to silence; the music paused; the clang of arms was hushed.  Each man asked his fellow in whispers, the meaning of this sudden peace; while Raymond from an height endeavoured, by means of glasses, to discover and observe the stratagem of the enemy.  No form could be discerned on the terraces of the houses; in the higher parts of the town no moving shadow bespoke the presence of any living being:  the very trees waved not, and mocked the stability of architecture with like immovability.

The tramp of horses, distinctly heard in the silence, was at length discerned.  It was a troop sent by Karazza, the Admiral; they bore dispatches to the Lord General.  The contents of these papers were important.  The night before, the watch, on board one of the smaller vessels anchored near the seraglio wall, was roused by a slight splashing as of muffled oars; the alarm was given:  twelve small boats, each containing three Janizaries, were descried endeavouring to make their way through the fleet to the opposite shore of Scutari.  When they found themselves discovered they discharged their muskets, and some came to the front to cover the others, whose crews, exerting all their strength, endeavoured to escape with their light barks from among the dark hulls that environed them.  They were in the end all sunk, and, with the exception of two or three prisoners, the crews drowned.  Little could be got from the survivors; but their cautious answers caused it to be surmised that several expeditions had preceded this last, and that several Turks of rank and importance had been conveyed to Asia.  The men disdainfully repelled the idea of having deserted the defence of their city; and one, the youngest among them, in answer to the taunt of a sailor, exclaimed, “Take it, Christian dogs! take the palaces, the gardens, the mosques, the abode of our fathers—­take plague with them; pestilence is the enemy we fly; if she be your friend, hug her to your bosoms.  The curse of Allah is on Stamboul, share ye her fate.”