274

LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

old iron cannons; but courage, ammunition, and provisionsabounded. The French general, Verdier, whom I after-wards knew, with three thousand French troops, providedwith cannon, howitzers, ladders, sat down before the oldbastions, erected batteries, which played for some time,when some picked battalions rushed forward with laddersto the assault. Such, however, was the warm resistance ofthe besieged, that after leaving four hundred dead beneaththe walls, the rest retired within their lines. Three timesdid Verdier repeat the assault; as often was he repulsedwith slaughter. At length the general conceived a hope tomake an entrance by the precipitous side, which necessarilyas usual was least guarded, being looked upon as inac-cessible. In the middle of one long, dark, stormy Decem-ber night, a band of seven Frenchmen, selected for theirhabits of climbing rocks, the foremost of them being chosenas the most dextrous, proceeded to climb the stones andcrags which separate the town from the sea. They got sonear the parapet at the top as to overhear the conversationof the sentries above them. Meanwhile a body of men weresilently following in their support provided with ropes, andladders, and poles to facilitate the ascent; while on the sidetowards the land the French kept up a vivid fire of mus-ketry and artillery to divert the attention of the besieged.But at this critical moment, suddenly an infantine voice,proceeding from the summit of the sea-shore rocks, criedout ,—I Francesi! I Francesi! Instantly the parapets inthat direction were covered with men, who, hurling downstones and firing muskets at a venture in the dark, one ofthe seven was struck and killed; above twenty of the sup-porting column were wounded ; but all of these had thesingular heroism to refrain from uttering a groan, lest theyshould betray their operation. Silence immediately ensued ;and such was the confidence of the Calabrians, that the fore-