el conduct of the
Turks at St. Elmo, which had shown that from such a foe there was no
mercy to be expected. The conviction of this had armed the Christians
with the courage of despair. On foreign succor they no longer relied.
Their only reliance was where their chief had taught them to place
it,--on the protection of Heaven; and La Valette, we are assured, went
every day during the siege to the church of St. Lawrence, and there
solemnly invoked that protection for the brave men who, alone and
unaided, were thus fighting the battles of the Faith.[1366]

The forlorn condition of the defences led, at length, the Council of
Grand Crosses, after much deliberation, to recommend to La Valette to
abandon Il Borgo, and to withdraw with the troops and the inhabitants
into the castle of St. Angelo. The grand-master saw at once the
disastrous consequences of such a step, and he rejected it without a
moment's hesitation. To withdraw into the castle, he said, would be to
give up all communication with St. Michael, and to abandon its brave
garrison to their fate. The inhabitants of the town would fare no
better. The cistern which supplied St. Angelo with water would be wholly
inadequate to the demands of such a multitude; and they would soon be
reduced to extremity. "No, my brethren," he concluded; "here we must
make our stand; and here we must die, if we cannot maintain ourselves
against the infidel."[1367]

He would not even consent to have the sacred relics, or the archives of
the order, removed thither, as to a place of greater security. It would
serve to discourage the soldiers, by leading them to suppose that he
distrusted their power of maintaining the town against the enemy. On the
contrary, he caused a bridge communicating with the castle to be broken
down, after calling off the greater part of the garrison to assist in
the defence of Il Borgo. By these measures, he proclaimed his
unalterable determination to maintain the town to the last, and if need
were, to die in its defence.[1368]

[Sidenote: THE TURKS DISPIRITED.]

CHAPTER V.

SIEGE OF MALTA.

The Turks dispirited.--Reinforcement from Sicily.--Siege
raised.--Mustapha defeated.--Rejoicings of the
Christians.--Mortification of Solyman.--Review of the Siege.--Subsequent
History of La Valette.

1565.

While the affairs of the besieged wore the gloomy aspect depicted in the
last chapter, those of the besiegers were not much better. More than
half their o