d lined the shore and
defied the invaders, hastily retired before the guns of the galleys,
and the Spaniards landed unopposed. The next day they began the march
to the city some few miles off. The Spaniards formed the left wing on
the hill side; the Emperor and the Duke of Alva with the German troops
composed the centre; the Italians and one hundred and fifty knights of
Malta marched on the right by the seashore. Driving back the
straggling bands of mounted Arabs, who ambushed among the rocks and
ravines, and picked off many of the Christians, the invaders pushed
steadily on, till Algiers was invested on all sides save the north.
Its fate appeared sealed. A brief bombardment from Charles's heavy
cannon, and the Spaniards would rush the breach and storm the citadel.
Hasan Aga, within, with only eight hundred Turks, and perhaps five
thousand Arabs and Moors, must almost have regretted the proud reply
he had just made to the Emperor's summons to surrender.

Then, when the end seemed close at hand, the forces of Nature came to
the rescue. The stars in their courses fought for Algiers: the rains
descended and the winds blew and beat upon that army, till the
wretched soldiers, with neither tents nor cloaks, with barely
food--for the landing of the stores had hardly begun--standing all
night knee-deep in slush in that pinguid soil, soaked to the skin,
frozen by the driving rain and bitter wind, were ready to drop with
exhaustion and misery. When morning dawned they could scarcely bear up
against the blustering gale; their powder was wet; and a sudden sally
of the Turks spread a panic in the sodden ranks which needed all the
courage and coolness of the Knights of Malta to compose. At last the
enemy was driven out of the trenches and pursued, skirmishing all the
way, to the Bab Az[=u]n. It looked as though pursuers and pursued
would enter together; but the gate was instantly shut, and a daring
Knight of Malta had barely struck his dagger in the gate to defy the
garrison, when the Christians found themselves under so heavy a fire
from the battlements, that they were forced to beat a retreat: the
Knights of Malta, last of all, their scarlet doublets shining like a
fresh wound, and their faces to the foe, covered the retreat.

Hasan then led out his best horsemen from the gate, and driving their
heels into their horses' flanks, the cloud of Moslems poured down the
hill. The Knights of Malta bore the shock with their iron firmness,