The wall in many places was broken down, and at other points
in the wall they had obtained a foothold, and the crescent was proudly
unfurled to the breeze. The feeble garrison, worn out with toil and
perishing with famine, were in the last stages of despair. Hunniades
came down upon the Turkish flotilla like an inundation; both parties
fought with almost unprecedented ferocity, but the Christians drove
every thing before them, sinking, dispersing, and capturing the boats,
which were by no means prepared for so sudden and terrible an assault.
The immense reinforcement, with arms and provisions, thus entered the
city, and securing the navigation of the Danube and the Save, opened the
way for continued supplies. The immense hosts of the Mohammedans now
girdled the city in a semicircle on the land side. Their tents,
gorgeously embellished and surmounted with the crescent, glittered in
the rays of the sun as far as the eye could extend. Squadrons of
steel-clad horsemen swept the field, while bands of the besiegers
pressed the city without intermission, night and day.
Mohammed, irritated by this unexpected accession of strength to the
besieged, in his passion ordered an immediate and simultaneous attack
upon the town by his whole force.
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