Grimed, emaciated, covered with sweat and blood and dust, did La Valette move from post to post exhorting and encouraging his soldiers.  So few had the gallant company of the Knights become that command was necessarily delegated to the under-officers; yet who among them did not find fresh courage and renewed strength when that great noble, the head of the Order, stood by their sides and spoke thus to them as man to man?—­

  “My brothers, we are all servants of Jesus Christ; and I feel assured
  that if I and all these in command should fall you will still fight on
  for the honour of the Order and the love of our Holy Church.”

We have to think of what it all meant, we have dimly to try and realise the burden which was laid upon this man, before we come to a right conception, not only of what he endured but the terrible sacrifices he was called upon to make.  Here was no man of iron lusting for blood and greedy of conquest for the sake of the vain applause of men; but one full of human love and affection for those among whom he had lived all the days of his life.  Upon him was laid the charge of upholding the honour of the Order, the majesty of the God whom he served.  To this end he doomed to certain death those brethren of his in St. Elmo, his own familiar friends, reminding them that it was their duty so to die, while his heart was breaking with the agony of this terrible decision, which no weaker man could have given.  When his beloved nephew was slain, together with another gallant youth, he smiled sadly and said that they had only travelled the road which they all had to tread in a few days; that he grieved as much for the one as for the other.  In speaking of this man, it may truly be said that there is no character in history more elevated; there is none which shows us the picture of a more perfect, gentle, and valiant knight.

CHAPTER XIX

DRAGUT-REIS

How Sinan Basha and Dragut raided the islands of Malta and Cozo and captured the town of Tripoli.  How the Knights of Malta captured “the puissant galleon” belonging to the Kustir-Aga and the Odalisques of the harem of the Grand Turk.  The despair of the ladies and the advice of the Imaum to Soliman the Magnificent.  A great armada is fitted out in Constantinople.  The preparations for defence on the part of La Valette and the Knights.  The expedition sails from Constantinople and lands in Malta.

Great must have been the consternation of the Knights when the armada, commanded by Sinan Basha, appeared off their coasts, and bitter must have been the reflections of Juan d’Omedes, the Grand Master, who had all along contended that so formidable an expedition could not possibly be directed against Malta.  The inhabitants of that island were, however, not left long in doubt, as Sinan, immediately on his arrival, entered the Grand Harbour, or “the Great Port,” as it was