traya
enla flama un crucifixo muy devoto." Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol.
122.

[1382] "Fueronse para Palacio, adonde dio el gran Maestre a todos muy
realmente de cenar, porque ya el governador del Gozo le avia embiado
muchos refrescos, y don Garcia y todos los capitanes del armada le
presentaron de la misma manera." Ibid., ubi supra.

[1383] Balbi expresses his satisfaction at the good cheer, declaring
that the dainties brought by the viceroy, however costly, seemed cheap
to men who had been paying two ducats for a fowl, and a real and a half
for an egg. Ibid., ubi supra.

[1384] Herrera, Historia General, vol. I. p. 592.

[1385] Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. III. p. 38.

[1386] Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 121.--De Thou reduces the
mortality to twenty thousand. (Hist. Universelle, tom. V. p. 592.)
Herrera, on the other hand, raises it to forty thousand. (Historia
General, tom. I. p. 90.) The whole Moslem force, according to Balbi, was
forty-eight thousand, exclusive of seamen. Of these about thirty
thousand were Turks. The remainder belonged to the contingents furnished
by Dragut and Hassem. Conf., fol. 25 and 121.

[1387] Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 128.--Balbi gives a list of all
the knights who perished in the siege. Cabrera makes a similar estimate
of the Christian loss. (Filipe Segundo, lib. VI. cap. 28.) De Thou rates
it somewhat lower (Hist. Universelle, tom. V. p. 90); and Vertot lower
still. (Knights of Malta, vol. III. p. 38.) Yet Balbi may be thought to
show too little disposition, on other occasions, to exaggerate the loss
of his own side for us to suspect him of exaggeration here.

[1388] "En todo este sitio no se a justiciado sino un solo Italiano
Senes el qual mando justiciar Melchior de Robles: porque dixo
publicamente estando en el mayor aprieto, que mas valiera que tomaramos
las quatro pagas que los turcos nos ofrecian, y el passage." Balbi,
Verdadera Relacion, fol. 128.

[1389] For this act of retributive justice, so agreeable to the feelings
of the reader, I have no other authority to give than Vertot, Knights of
Malta, vol. III. p. 18.

[1390] Ibid., pp. 39, 40.--Calderon, Gloriosa Defensa de Malta, pp. 189,
190.--De Thou, Hist. Universelle, tom. V. p. 91.

[1391] "Havia en la Isla de Malta quinze mil hombres de pelea, los
quales bastaran para resistir a qualquiera poder del gran Turco en
campana rasa." Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 129.

Besides the Spanish forces, a body