Several mortar vessels moved close in shore and threw shells into the town, while the batteries poured in red hot shot.

This spread great alarm throughout the town.

The people could be hardly induced to continue working on the defenses, and many took refuge in cellars or in the churches.

Ammunition began to fail, and despair was taking possession of the defenders, when, at two o'clock in the morning of the 21st, a galley ran safely into the harbor bearing a supply of powder and encouraging messages from Lord Peterborough.
Three days later he managed to throw a body of Neapolitan troops into the town, embarking them in boats at Matero, a small port a few miles to the northeast of the town.

He sent them close along the shore in order to pass the enemy's fleet, if possible, unobserved.