Then charge upon charge ensued, and each charge, if it cost them much, cost the besieged more, by reason of their fewer numbers.

At one point, however, the besieged became again the attacking party.

This was where Achmet Pasha had command.

His men on one side of the circle, as Ebn Ezra Bey's men on the other, fought with a valour as desperate as the desert ever saw.

But David, galloping here and there to order, to encourage, to prevent retreat at one point, or to urge attack at another, saw that the doom of his gallant force was certain; for the enemy were still four to one, in spite of the carnage of the first attack.