Constantine and Justiniani remembered Count Corti's description of the great drum hauled before the artillery train of the Turks, and the former said calmly:
"They are coming."
Almost as he spoke the sunlight mildly tinting the land in the farness seemed to be troubled, and on the tops of the remote hillocks there appeared to be giants rolling them up, as children roll snow-balls—and the movement was toward the city.
The drum ceased not its beating or coming. Justiniani by virtue of his greater experience, was at length able to say:
"Your Majesty, it is here in front of us; and as this Gate St. Romain marks the centre of your defences, so that drum marks the centre of an advancing line, and regulates the movement from wing to wing."
"It must be so, Captain; for see—there to the left—those are bodies of men."
"And now, Your Majesty, I hear trumpets."
A little later some one cried out:
"Now I hear shouting."
And another: "I see gleams of metal."