the neighbouring
houses, and from the road; their steady fire, at the points most hotly
attacked, drove their assailants back again and again.

At twelve o'clock the assault slackened. The soldiers had long left
and, so far as could be seen from the roof of the house, had entirely
evacuated the town; and as this fact became known to the mob, the
thought of the consequences of their action cooled their fury; for they
knew that, probably, the troops would land from the British ships next
day. Each man had his plunder to secure, and gradually the crowd melted
away.

By two o'clock all was quiet; and although, occasionally, fresh fires
burst out in various quarters of the town, there could be little doubt
that the great bulk of the population had followed the example of the
army, and had left the city.

Then the besieged gathered in the great office on the ground floor;
and, as it was agreed that there would be probably no renewal of the
attack, they quietly left the house, locking the doors after them, and
made their way down to the shore. They believed that they were the only
survivors, but when they reached the end of the town, they found that
the building of the Credit Lyonnais had also been successfully
defended, though the Ottoman Bank had been overpowered, and all within
it, upwards of a hundred in number, killed.

Gregory had done his full share in the defence, and received a musket
ball in the shoulder. His wife had passed a terrible time, while the
conflagration was raging, and it was evident that the populace had
risen, and were undoubtedly murdering as well as burning and
plundering; and her delight was indeed great when she saw her husband,
with others, approaching in a man-of-war's boat. The fact that one arm
was in a sling was scarcely noticed, in her joy at his return, alive.

"Thank God, you are safe!" she said, as he came up the gangway. "It has
been an awful time, and I had almost given up hope of ever seeing you
alive, again."

"I told you, dear, that I felt confident we could beat off the scum of
the town. Of course it was a sharp fight, but there was never any real
danger of their breaking in. We only lost about half a dozen, out of
nearly a hundred and twenty, and some twenty of us were wounded. My
injury is not at all serious, and I shall soon be all right again. It
is only a broken collarbone.

"However, it has been a terrible time. The great square, and almost all
the European quarter, hav