n, fol. 37.

[1305] Ibid., fol. 23.

[1306] Ibid., fol. 21.--Vertot says, of a hundred and sixty
pounds'weight. (Knights of Malta, vol. II. p. 202.) Yet even this was
far surpassed by the mammoth cannon employed by Mahomet at the siege of
Constantinople, in the preceding century, which, according to Gibbon,
threw stone bullets of six hundred pounds.

Since the above lines were written, even this achievement has been
distanced by British enterprise. The "Times" informs us of some "monster
guns," intended to be used in the Baltic, the minimum weight of whose
shot is to be three cwt., and the maximum ten.

[1307] Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 26.--The old soldier goes into
the composition of the Turkish force, in the general estimate of which
he does not differ widely from Vertot.

[1308] Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 84.

[1309] Ibid., ubi supra.

[1310] Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 37 et seq.--Vertot, Knights of
Malta, vol. II. pp. 200-202.--- Calderon, Gloriosa Defensa de Malta, p.
42.--Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VI. cap. 24.

[1311] In Vertot's account of this affair, much is said of a nondescript
outwork, termed a _cavalier_,--conveying a different idea from what is
understood by that word in modern fortifications. It stood without the
walls, and was connected with the ravelin by a bridge, the possession of
which was hotly contested by the combatants. Balbi, the Spanish soldier,
so often quoted,--one of the actors in the siege, though stationed at
the fort of St. Michael,--speaks of the fight as being carried on in the
ditch. His account has the merit of being at once the briefest and the
most intelligible.

[1312] Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 40, 41.--Vertot, Knights of
Malta, vol. II. pp. 203-205.--Calderon, Gloriosa Defensa de Malta, p. 48
et seq.--Segrado, Monarcas Othomanos, p. 245.--Cabrera, Filipe Segundo,
lib. VI. cap. 24.--Herrera, Historia General, lib. XII. cap. 4.

[1313] Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 39

[1314] Ibid., fol. 39-42.--Calderon, Gloriosa Defensa de Malta, p.
46.--De Thou, Hist. Universelle, tom. V. p. 58.--Vertot, Knights of
Malta, vol. II. p. 204.--Miniana, Hist. de Espana, p. 350.

[1315] For the preceding pages, setting forth the embassies to La
Valette, and exhibiting in such bold relief the character of the
grand-master, I have been chiefly indebted to Vertot (Knights of Malta,
vol. I. pp. 309-312). The same story is told, more concisely, by
Calderon, Glorios