eleven at night
Even in the secondary matter of _ materiel _ the cost is not small . As night approached the guns of the enemy were completely silenced , and the ships began to husband their ammunition , for they had by that time fired an immense quantity of gunpowder , and 50,000 shot , weighing more than 500 tons of iron ; besides 960 shells of large size , as well as a considerable quantity of shot , shell , and rockets from the flotilla ! The result was that the entire fleet of the pirates was destroyed , and the sea-defences of Algiers , with a great part of the town itself , were shattered and crumbled in ruins . Then the fleet hauled off with considerable difficulty , owing to the absence of wind ; but the pirates had not given in , for they kept spitting at their foes from the upper batteries of the town until half-past eleven at night , when the ships got out of range and firing ceased . Strange to say , the powers of nature , which had hitherto slumbered quietly , now came into play . The breeze freshened and a tremendous storm of thunder , lightning , and rain came on , as if to mock the fury of man , and humble him under a sense of his relative littleness . But man is not easily humbled .