On came the Moslem vanguard—mounted men, armed with long guns and spears, resplendent in the barbaric finery of the East. Cymbals and drums crashed in defiance, while under the waving green banners of Islam the fanatical warriors shouted death to the silent soldiers on the walls. Some of the Arabs, in pure bravado, galloped up to the edge of the moat and daringly discharged their weapons at their foes, till a well-directed shower of arrows struck down several and left the rest to ride back with loose rein, still shouting defiance at the Christian warriors.
Meanwhile their vanguard dismounted at slightly more than an arrow's flight from the walls, and awaited the rest of the Mohammedan host.
To the two lads the spectacle was fascinating, in spite of the possible peril that might ensue. It seemed as if there was no end to the number of the fierce besiegers. Bedouins mounted on horses or on camels, half-naked Baggaras armed with spears and circular hide shields, levies from the wilds of Kordofan and the hilly deserts of the Ahaggar, and negroes from the unconquered deserts of the Western Sudan—men representing all the tribes and nations of northern Africa had forgathered to crush the little, isolated State over which the hated cross of the Christians still floated proudly in the breeze.
Meanwhile Reeves had not been idle. Although several cannons had been placed on the walls on all sides, their positions carefully screened from outside observation, he had kept ten pieces in reserve, mounted on travelling carriages. These he had brought round to the probable point of attack, but strict orders had been given that no shot was to be fired until the Englishman himself gave the signal by discharging a cannon with his own hands.
True to their traditions to close with the enemy, the Arabs did not wait until their long baggage trains had arrived, but, forming in compact masses, began the attack.
Supported by the fire of nearly two thousand muskets, the spearmen advanced with the greatest intrepidity. Many of them bore roughly-constructed ladders, trunks of palm trees, and bundles of straw, for the purpose of bridging the moat and scaling the lofty walls—to conquer or die.
As the bullets whizzed overhead, or flattened themselves harmlessly against the stonework, the Croixilians lay behind the shelter of their battlements—the archers with their bows strung and their arrows lying close to hand, the crossbowmen with their powerful weapons bent almost to breaking-point, and the knights ready, with sword, axe, or mace, to sweep the invaders from off the parapet. Heaps of stone, bundles of flaming straw, great balks of spike-studded timber, and bowls of melted 'lead and hot pitch were in readiness to be hurled upon the heads of the reckless attackers.
Reeves felt that he could leave the defence of the walls solely to the knights and archers, while he gave orders for the artillery to be trained upon the still unsuspecting supports, who, firing from beyond bowshot, imagined that they could gall the defenders with impunity.
On and on came the storming-party, till the place seemed black with human beings. Still no shaft sped from the battlements. In an unswerving belief in their own power, the Baggaras, thinking that their foes were already demoralized, rushed with loud cries towards the walls. Already they were bridging the moat, and the fire of the covering force was compelled to cease, lest the bullets should do more harm to their friends than to their foes.
Calmly Reeves applied the linstock to his gun, the Croixilian gunners did likewise to theirs, and the roar of defiant voices was drowned by the thunder of the ordnance.