'Soft? You saw only the wooden stock. But concealed within was an iron ramrod, running the whole length of the weapon through a skinny hole augered into the wood, alongside the musket-barrel itself. This sword cut through the wood – no great feat – but then it must've sliced clean through the ramrod, and then well into the barrel – deep enough to make it weak there. When the powder finally caught, it shoved the ball up only as far as the weak place, and then the barrel burst – that was the end of the Janissary, for he had his face up practically – '