Spain and was hastening with a large fleet to attack the Turks.  The letter was a ruse on the part of the “Receiver,” and contained not a particle of truth.  It was, however, quite enough for Sinan, who immediately called a council of war and imparted this alarming news to its members.  The council, after the invariable fashion of such bodies, decided to take the safest and easiest course:  the name of the terrible Andrea was one of evil omen to the Ottomans, and, as one man, they voted for prosecuting their voyage to Tripoli before the Genoese seaman should put in an appearance.  In vain was the fury of Dragut, who had counted on a full revenge on his ancient enemies the Knights.  The armada sailed to the adjacent island of Gozo, which was thoroughly sacked with every refinement of cruelty.  Every house on the island was burned, and six thousand of its inhabitants carried off to slavery.  One incident is deserving of record.  In Gozo dwelt a certain Sicilian with his wife and two daughters:  sooner than that they should fall into the hands of the Turks this man stabbed his wife and daughters and then threw himself, sword in hand, into the ranks of his enemies, where he slew two of them, wounded several others, and was then hacked to pieces.  The fleet then proceeded to Tripoli, which was taken almost without opposition, as it was defended by a mere handful of the Knights and some utterly unreliable Calabrian infantry, who had never before seen a shot fired:  these men very soon mutinied and refused to fight any longer.  Dragut became the autocrat of Tripoli, as his great predecessor Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa had been of Algiers:  from hence, in the years that were to come before his death, he carried on his sleepless and unending warfare with his Christian foes, on whom he was destined to inflict another terrible defeat when they attacked this stronghold which he had made his own.

Claude de la Sangle dying on August 18th, 1557, Jean Parisot de la Valette was chosen Grand Master of the Knights of Malta in his stead on August 21st of the same year.  He was, as we have said before, in succession, soldier, captain, councillor, general, and Grand Cross; he was as wise in council as he was terrible in battle; he was as much esteemed by his brethren as he was feared by the infidel.  Under his governorship “the Religion” regained the ancient authority which it had once possessed, especially in some of the German Provinces and in the Republic of Venice.  So great was the influence of La Valette that he succeeded in making the “Languages” (or confederations of Knights) of Germany and Venice pay their “responsions,” which had been allowed to get into arrear.  These “responsions” were a tax levied on the “Languages " exclusively for the purpose of combatting the infidel, and La Valette brought all the firmness of his high character to bear, in order to induce these Knights to do what, he reminded them, was their simple and obvious duty.  Fired by the highest conception of the office he had