Demetrius, which had been occupied by the French, was accidentally blown
up. The Duke de Beaufort, and many others, perished in the explosion, or
were buried under the ruins; and the survivors, panic-stricken at the
catastrophe, were driven within the walls with terrible slaughter by the
Turks, who rallied and returned to the charge. The usual hideous
trophies of Ottoman triumph--the heads of the slain, were laid at the
feet of the vizir; but the body of the Duc de Beaufort, though anxiously
sought for at the prayer of his comrades, who offered, through a flag of
truce, to redeem it at its weight in gold, could never be discovered.

This dreadful blow not only threw a fatal gloom over the ardour of the
French, but gave rise to an altercation between Morosini and De
Noailles, each of whom threw on the other the blame of the failure;
till, after a month thus unprofitably spent, the French commander
re-embarked his troops, and sailed for Toulon, August 31, leaving the
town to its fate. The Maltese and Papal galleys departed in his
company;--"for thus did these accursed swine of Nazarenes" (says the
Turkish historiographer, Rashid) "withdraw from the doom of hell, which
awaited them at the hands of the Faithful." The condition of the
remaining defenders, thus deserted by their allies, and separated from
the Turks only by breastworks hastily thrown up in the interior of the
town, was now utterly hopeless, as not more than 3600 men remained fit
for duty, while the loss in slain and disabled averaged more than a
hundred a-day. In these desperate circumstances, a council of war was
summoned by Morosini, to consider whether it might not even yet be
practicable to avoid the ignominy of a surrender, by evacuating the
town, and escaping, with the inhabitants, by sea. Their deliberations
were hastened by a furious assault from the Turks, who were impatient to
seize their prey; and, though the enemy were repulsed for the time by
the remains of the Lunenburghers, two officers were eventually