Slowly the various details of the siege operations were perfected by the Turks; parts of the moats before the walls were filled up; a bridge was built from Pera to Constantinople, that gave an admirable basis for cannonading the city at close quarters. On the 28th the inhabitants noted such great activity in the Ottoman camp that it was evident the final attack was close at hand. Mohammed rode from point to point giving final directions, and word was proclaimed by heralds that every member of the besieging army should be prepared. The movement in the Turkish camp began three hours before daybreak. The Christian allies and the rank and file of the Moslem soldiers were directed to place ladders at a point in the wall near the Romanos gate that had already especially suffered from artillery fire. The loss of life among the assailants, at this point, was very great, but as the élite of the army did not suffer, the Ottoman leaders were indifferent as to the cost of getting the ladders near the walls and defenses. The next step was to bring up the Janitschars, who, under the personal direction of the Sultan and the two chief generals of his army, commenced operations near the Romanos and two other gates. Compact in their firm discipline, and protected by artillery fire, with the smoke of their guns concealing from the defenders their rapid motion, they pressed ahead. On the Greek side the Emperor kept out of the tumultuous fighting, leaving the work of active defense to the Italian Giustiniano, who made a heroic resistance in the interior defenses of the city, until, struck in the breast by a bullet, he was carried away to a ship mortally wounded. After this fatality general confusion followed; there was no one to take the commander’s place. No words of command were now heard; the Turks, who had been held back from the high walls, filled up the space between the outer lines of temporary palisades and the permanent fortifications that were being dismantled by the cannonading.