ATTACK ON THE LANDWAED WALLS 269 with, even ten thousand men, no one could have hindered their entry. The Moscovite, speaking of the same incident, states that the Turks were so infuriated by a successful shot from the small cannon of Justiniani that Mahomet gave the order for an assault, raised the cry of 1 Jagma, jagma ! ' ' Pillage, pillage ! ' but they were repulsed. One of the balls, accord- ing to the same author, knocked away five of the battlements and buried itself in the walls of a church. 1 The defenders, among whom, notes Barbaro, were some ' of our Venetian gentlemen,' set themselves at once to make stout repairs where the wall had been broken down. Barrels full of stones, beams, logs, anything that would help to make a barricade, were hastily got together and worked with clay and earth, so as to form a substitute for the Outer Wall. When com- pleted, the new work formed a stockade, made largely of wood and built up with earth and stones. 2 The ' accursed Turk,' says Barbaro, did not cease day and night to fire his greatest bombard against the walls near which the repairs were being made. Arrows and stones innumerable were thrown, and there were discharges also from firelocks or fusils 3 which threw leaden balls. He adds that during these days the enemy were in such numbers that it was hardly possible to see the ground or anything else except the white head dress of the Janissaries, and the red fezes of the rest of the Turks. 4 Meantime the sultan was bent upon carrying into execu- tion a plan for obtaining access to the harbour. All accounts agree that the defeat of the Turkish fleet on April 20 had roused Mahomet to fury. More than one contemporary states that it was the immediate cause of Mahomet's decision to attempt to gain possession of the Golden Horn by the transport of his ships over land across Transport J r r of Turkish 1 As the only church in the neighbourhood of the place defended by Justi- ^ a ^ an ^ niani was that of St Kyriake near the Pempton, the information is valuable as helping to fix the locality where the great gun was stationed. The Moscovite, ch. vii. 2 The Moscovite, ch. vii., in Dethier's Siege ; Barbaro, p. 27 ; Crit. 3 Zarabotane. 4 Barbaro, p. 27. The account of the fight given by Pusculus is very full and spirited. See note in Appendix as to the question where the naval fight took place.
