e Spanish array, together with the knights,
then crossed over to Il Borgo.[1379] They met there with a cordial
welcome; but the knights, as they embraced their comrades, were greatly
shocked by their appearance,--their wan and care-worn countenances,
their emaciated figures, their long and matted hair, and their squalid
attire. Many were disfigured by honorable scars; some were miserably
maimed; others wore bandages over wounds not yet healed. It was a
piteous sight, too plainly intimating the extremity of suffering to
which they had been reduced; and as the knights gazed on their brethren,
and called to mind the friends they had lost, their hearts were filled
with unspeakable anguish.[1380]

On the fourteenth of September, the viceroy reappeared with the fleet,
bearing the remainder of the reinforcement from Sicily. The admiral's
pennant displayed a cross, intimating that it was a holy war in which
they were engaged.[1381] As the squadron came proudly up the Great Port,
with pennons and streamers gayly flying from its masts, it was welcomed
by salvos of artillery from the fortresses and bastions around; and the
rocky shores, which had so long reverberated only with the din of war,
now echoed to the sounds of jubilee.

The grand-master came down to the landing-place below St. Angelo, to
receive the viceroy, with the nobles and cavaliers who followed in his
train. They had come too late to share the dangers of the besieged, but
not too late to partake of their triumph. They were courteously
conducted by La Valette, across the scene of desolation, to his own
palace, which, though in an exposed quarter of the town, had so far
escaped as to be still habitable. As the strangers gazed on the remains
of the fortifications, nearly levelled to the ground, they marvelled
that the shadowy forms which they saw gliding among the ruins could have
so long held out against the Moslem armies. Well had they earned for
their city the title of _Vittoriosa_, "The Victorious," which,
supplanting that of Il Borgo, still commemorates its defence against the
infidel.

La Valette had provided an entertainment for his illustrious guests, as
good as his limited resources would allow; but it is said that the
banquet was reinforced by a contribution from the viceroy's own
stores.[1382] On the departure of the Spaniards, he showed his
gratitude, while he indulged his munificent spirit, by bestowing
handsome presents on the captains and a liberal l