“If you will give me leave, sir, I will go out at the watergate, swim up the inner harbour, and in a very short time turn a few of the craft lying there into fire ships, and tow them out with a couple of galleys.  At any rate, we can fire all these craft that have grounded, and create a panic among the others.”

“Well thought of, Gervaise!  I will write an order on one of my tablets.  Do you take my place for a minute.”  Withdrawing behind the line, the grand master sat down on a fragment of stone, and, drawing a tablet from a pouch in his girdle, he wrote on it, “In all things carry out the instructions of Sir Gervaise Tresham:  he is acting by my orders and authority, and has full power in all respects.”

He handed the slip of parchment to Gervaise, who hurried to the water gate in the inner harbour, threw off his helmet and armour, issued out at the gate, and plunged into the sea.  He swam out some distance, in order to avoid the missiles of the Turks, who were trying to scale the wall from the mole, and then directed his course to St. Michael’s, which guarded the inner entrance to the fort.  He had fastened the parchment in his hair, and as some of the garrison of the tower, noticing his approach, came down to assist him, he handed it to them and was at once taken to the commander of St. Michael, answering as he went the anxious questions as to how matters stood at the breach.

“Aid is sorely needed.  The Turks have gained no foot of ground as yet, but many of the knights are killed and most of the others utterly exhausted with heat and labour.  Unless aid reaches them speedily, the tower, with all its defenders, will be lost.”

The instant the commander knew what was required, he bade six of the knights embark with Gervaise in a boat moored behind the tower, and row up the harbour to the spot where the shipping was all massed together, protected by the high ground of the fortress from the Turkish fire.  Gervaise waved his hand, as he neared the end of the harbour, to the officer on the walls, and while the six knights who were with him ran off to tell the master of the galleys to prepare two of them to leave the port instantly, Gervaise explained to the officer in charge of the wall at that point the plan that he was charged to carry out, and asked for twenty knights to assist him.

“It will leave us very weak along here,” the officer said.  “Then let me have ten, and send for another ten from other parts of the wall.  Here is the grand master’s order, giving me full power and authority, and it is all important that no single moment shall be wasted.”

“You shall have twenty of mine,” the officer said, “and I will draw ten from the langue next to us to fill their places.”