icily.
There still remained, however, numbers of women and children; and the
former, displaying the heroic constancy which, in times of trouble, so
often distinguishes the sex, did good service during the siege, by
tending the sick and by cheering the flagging spirits of the
soldier.[1301]

This little army La Valette distributed on the several stations,
assigning each to some one of the _languages_, or nations, that the
spirit of emulation might work its effects on the chivalry of the order.
The castle of St. Elmo was the point of first importance. It covered so
contracted a piece of ground, that it scarcely afforded accommodation
for a thousand men; and not more than eight hundred were shut up within
its walls at the commencement of the siege.[1302] Its dimensions did not
admit of its being provided with magazines capable of holding any large
quantity of provisions, or military stores, for which it was
unfortunately obliged to rely on its communication with Il Borgo, the
town across the harbor. The masonry of the fort was not in the best
repute: though the works were lined with at least thirty pieces of
artillery, looking chiefly towards the land. Its garrison, which usually
amounted to sixty soldiers, was under the command of an aged knight,
named De Broglio. The grand-master reinforced this body with sixty
knights under the bailiff of Negropont, a veteran in whose well-tried
valor La Valette placed entire confidence. He was strengthened by two
companies of foreign levies, under the command of a Spanish cavalier
named La Cerda.[1303]

Various other points were held by small detachments, with some one of
the order at the head of each. But the strength of the force, including
nearly all the remainder of the knights, was posted in the castle of St.
Angelo and in the town at its base. Here La Valette took his own
station, as the spot which, by its central position, would enable him to
watch over the interests of the whole. All was bustle in this quarter,
as the people were busily employed in strengthening the defences of the
town, and in razing buildings in the suburbs, which the grand-master
feared might afford a lodgement to the enemy. In this work their labors
were aided by a thousand slaves, taken from the prison, and chained
together in couples.[1304]

[Sidenote: ARRIVAL OF THE TURKS.]

On the morning of the eighteenth of May, 1565, the Turkish fleet was
descried by the sentinels of St. Elmo and St. Angelo, abo