they had shown, which had, as he
rightly said, saved the town, for, had the French found themselves still
unobserved, they would assuredly have managed to get down the
counterscarp, and to establish themselves in the tower in force before
any suspicion of what was going on took place.

The French, whose operations were hidden by the gardens, at once
proceeded to drive a gallery in order to blow up the counterscarp, upon
which their guns could not be brought to bear, and on the 29th the mine
was sprung. It did some damage, but it had not been driven quite far
enough. Led by an officer of the staff named Mailly, the French rushed
forward as soon as the mine exploded. They clambered down over the
breach that had been made on the counterscarp, crossed the fosse by
three ladders they had brought with them, and reached the foot of the
breach. There was, however, too great a distance between the pile of
rubbish at the foot of the wall and the great hole above it for them to
enter without fixing their ladders.

As they were in the act of doing this the Turks, who had at their first
appearance again been seized with a panic, but had been brought back by
a number of their officers, who adjured them to stand, saying that it
was better to die fighting the infidel than to be shot by Djezzar,
opened a heavy fire. Mailly was killed, several of the grenadiers and
sappers fell round him, and the rest retired, meeting, as they climbed
the counterscarp, two battalions who had joined them as soon as the
breach was reported practicable; but upon hearing from the grenadiers
that this was not the case they fell back again after losing their
commanding officer and many men from the Turkish fire.

This success greatly encouraged the Turks, who had heard from those who
had escaped from Jaffa that no obstacles were sufficient to daunt the
French, and from this time Sir Sidney Smith began to entertain hope that
the town could be held, of which, owing to the supineness of Djezzar and
his troops, he had hitherto been very doubtful. The French at once
recommenced mining. In eight days they completely blew up the
counterscarp, and on the twelfth carried their gallery under the ditch
with the intention of blowing up the whole tower.

By this time the besieged were aware that the French were at work
mining. Colonel Phelypeaux had, during the interval since the last
attempt, worked indefatigably. The breach had been filled up with
combustible materi