and the promises of
support given to him by Don Garcia at the beginning of the siege.

La Valette, we are told, subsequently complained of the viceroy's
conduct to Pius the Fifth; and that pontiff represented the affair to
the king of Spain. Don Garcia had, soon after, the royal permission to
retire from the government of Sicily. He withdrew to the kingdom of
Naples, where he passed the remainder of his days, without public
employment of any kind, and died in obscurity.[1389]--Such a fate may
not be thought, after all, conclusive evidence that he had not acted in
obedience to the private instructions of his sovereign.

[Sidenote: SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF LA VALETTE.]

The reader, who has followed La Valette through the siege of Malta, may
perhaps feel some curiosity to learn the fate of this remarkable
man.--The discomfiture of the Turks caused a great sensation throughout
Europe. In Rome the tidings were announced by the discharge of cannon,
illuminations, and bonfires. The places of public business were closed.
The shops were shut. The only places opened were the churches; and
thither persons of every rank--the pope, the cardinals, and the
people--thronged in procession, and joined in public thanksgiving for
the auspicious event. The rejoicing was great all along the shores of
the Mediterranean, where the inhabitants had so severely suffered from
the ravages of the Turks. The name of La Valette was on every tongue, as
that of the true champion of the cross. Crowned heads vied with one
another in the honors and compliments which they paid him. The king of
Spain sent him a present of a sword and poniard, the handles of which
were of gold superbly mounted with diamonds. The envoy, who delivered
these in presence of the assembled knights, accompanied the gift with a
pompous eulogy on La Valette himself, whom he pronounced the greatest
captain of the age, beseeching him to continue to employ his sword in
defence of Christendom. Pius the Fifth sent him--what, considering the
grand-master's position, may be thought a singular compliment--a
cardinal's hat. La Valette, however, declined it, on the ground that his
duties as a cardinal would interfere with those which devolved on him as
head of the order. Some referred his refusal to modesty; others, with
probably quite as much reason, to his unwillingness to compromise his
present dignity by accepting a subordinate station.[1390]

But La Valette had no time to dally with idle c