ompliments and honors.
His little domain lay in ruins around him; and his chief thought now was
how to restore its fortunes. The first year after the siege, the knights
had good reason to fear a new invasion of the Moslems; and Philip
quartered a garrison of near fifteen thousand troops in the island for
its protection.[1391] But Solyman fortunately turned his arms against a
nearer enemy, and died in the course of the same year, while carrying on
the war against Hungary.[1392] Selim, his successor, found another
direction for his ambition. Thus relieved of his enemies, the
grand-master was enabled to devote all his energies to the great work of
rebuilding his fallen capital, and placing the island in a more perfect
state of defence than it had ever been. He determined on transferring
the residence of the order to the high land of Mount Sceberras, which
divides the two harbors, and which would give him the command of both.
His quick eye readily discerned those advantages of the position, which
time has since fully proved. Here he resolved to build his capital, to
surround it with fortifications, and, at the same time, to enlarge and
strengthen those of St. Elmo.

But his treasury was low. He prepared a plan of his improvements, which
he sent to the different European princes, requesting their cooeperation,
and urging the importance to them all of maintaining Malta as the best
bulwark against the infidel. His plan met with general approbation. Most
of the sovereigns responded to his appeal by liberal contributions,--and
among them the French king; notwithstanding his friendly relations with
the sultan. To these funds the members of the order freely added
whatever each could raise by his own credit. This amount was still
further swelled by the proceeds of prizes brought into port by the
Maltese cruisers,--an inexhaustible source of revenue.

Funds being thus provided, the work went forward apace. On the
twenty-eighth of March, 1566, the grand-master, clad in his robes of
ceremony, and in the presence of a vast concourse of knights and
inhabitants, laid the first stone of the new capital. It was carved with
his own arms; and a Latin inscription recorded the name of "Valetta,"
which the city was to bear in honor of its founder.[1393] More than
eight thousand men were employed on the work; and a bull of Pius the
Fifth enjoined that their labors should not be suspended on
fete-days.[1394] It seemed to be regarded as a Christi