Jack and his companions pushed on, and having now fewer enemies to encounter, made still greater progress. The higher part of the town was reached; with shouts and loud huzzas they scrambled up to the summit of the walls, and, planting the British banner, Sidon was proclaimed to have fallen into the power of the allies. Fortunately the commodore and his followers came upon a thousand men concealed in a vaulted barrack, who were prepared to rush out and cut them off, but who, instead, were very glad to lay down their arms, and in the end every one of the garrison, three thousand in number, was captured. Tyre, that ancient city, was next captured; so was Caiffa, Tortosa, and other places; and at last the fleet appeared before Acre, still one of the most important places on the Syrian coast. Here the midshipmen saw what real fighting was. Acre presents two sides to the sea, one facing south and the other west. In consequence of this it was necessary that the fleet should attack in two divisions. It was a grand sight to see the mighty line-of-battle ships and the fine steamers, armed with their engines of destruction, approaching in order the devoted town, and still more when they began thundering away from a thousand loud-mouthed guns, confusing the senses with their roars and filling the air with their smoke. Even Jack felt his spirits awed as hour after hour, without cessation, the mighty uproar continued, and houses were overthrown and strong stone walls were seen crumbling away before the reiterated shocks of the iron shower levelled at them. The enemy, too, were not idle, and shots and shell came whizzing about the ships, striking down here and there many a gallant seaman and marine. "Well, Alick, what do you think of it?" asked Jack, as, in the course of their duty, the two friends were brought together. "That we are in earnest in what we are about; though I wish I could feel the poor fellows we are slaughtering deserved their fate more than I think they do," answered Murray. "I don't understand those niceties," observed Terence, who had just then come up. "Those fellows don't do what we tell them, so we've a perfect right to kill and destroy them as fast as we can; but, halloo, what's that?" As Adair was speaking a terrific noise, ten times louder than the roar of all the guns of the squadron put together, was heard, and high up into the air were seen to ascend fragments of walls, and beams, and human bodies, succeeded by a dense smoke, out of which flames burst forth and raged furiously. The castle had blown up, or rather the grand magazine within it, and in a moment nearly two thousand persons were hurried into eternity. The firing ceased--the combatants held their breath, aghast at the dreadful catastrophe; but the Egyptians, undaunted, soon again recommenced the action, and the ships bombarded on as before till sunset, when the action was discontinued.