The massy portal shook; a few blows of the
battering ram, and it fell. The Turks sallied forth, were received
with a shower of Greek fire, and driven in with agonising yells. Some
endeavoured to escape from the windows, and were speared or cut down;
some appeared wringing their hands in despair upon the terraced roof.
Suddenly the palace was announced to be on fire. A tall white-blueish
flame darted up from a cloud of smoke, and soon, as if by magic, the
whole back of the building was encompassed with rising tongues of red
and raging light. Amid a Babel of shrieks, and shouts, and cheers, and
prayers, and curses, the roof of the palace fell in with a crash, which
produced amid the besiegers an awful and momentary silence, but in an
instant they started from their strange inactivity, and rushing
forward, leapt into the smoking ruins, and at the same time completed
the massacre and achieved their freedom.
CHAPTER 7
At break of dawn Iskander sent couriers throughout all Epirus,
announcing the fall of Croia, and that he had raised the standard of
independence in his ancient country.
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