hose who were drowned,--according to the
Maltese statements,--fell in the two attacks on the fortress and the
bastion. But the arithmetic of an enemy is not apt to be exact.[1346]
The loss of the Christians did not exceed two hundred. Even this was a
heavy loss to the besieged, and included some of their best knights, to
say nothing of others disabled by their wounds. Still it was a signal
victory; and its influence was felt in raising the spirits of the
besieged, and in inspiring them with confidence. La Valette was careful
to cherish these feelings. The knights, followed by the whole population
of Il Borgo, went in solemn procession to the great church of St.
Lawrence, where _Te Deum_ was chanted, while the colors taken from the
infidel were suspended from the walls as glorious trophies of the
victory.[1347]

Mustapha now found that the spirit of the besieged, far from being
broken by their late reverses, was higher than ever, as their resources
were greater, and their fortifications stronger, than those of St. Elmo.
He saw the necessity of proceeding with greater caution. He resolved to
level the defences of the Christians with the ground, and then,
combining the whole strength of his forces, make simultaneous assaults
on Il Borgo and St. Michael. His first step was to continue his line of
intrenchments below St. Salvador to the water's edge, and thus cut off
the enemy's communication with the opposite side of the English Port, by
means of which the late reinforcement from Sicily had reached him. He
further strengthened the battery on St. Salvador, arming it with sixteen
guns,--two of them of such enormous calibre, as to throw stone bullets
of three hundred pounds' weight.

[Sidenote: INCESSANT CANNONADE.]

From this ponderous battery he now opened a crushing fire on the
neighboring bastion of Castile, and on the quarter of Il Borgo lying
nearest to it. The storm of marble and metal that fell upon the houses,
though these were built of stone, soon laid many of than in ruins; and
the shot, sweeping the streets, killed numbers of the inhabitants,
including women and children. La Valette caused barriers of solid
masonry to be raised across the streets for the protection of the
citizens. As this was a work of great danger, he put his slaves upon it,
trusting, too, that the enemy might be induced to mitigate his fire from
tenderness for the lives of his Moslem brethren. But in such an
expectation he greatly erred. More