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. Before the smoke had drifted away, the artillerymen sprang to their pieces with sponge and rammer, as if brought up to it from infancy, loading with bags of grape shot so as to direct their fire upon the stormers. Reeves gave a hasty glance to see the result of the first volley. The shells, magnificently aimed and timed, had burst well over the dense masses of the main Arab army. Totally unexpected, the sudden storm of shot wrought havoc upon the astonished foe, and in a disorderly rabble they fled, leaving hundreds of their comrades lying dead or wounded on the field. Nor did they halt until they had placed a good two miles between them and the walls, taking shelter in a deep and wide khor or valley on the eastern side of the plain.