at
islands distant from Rhodes, telling the inhabitants how the battle
between the Christians and the Moslems was raging.

It was not long before the wall in the front of the Jews' quarter began
to crumble, and it was soon evident that it must, ere many days, succumb
to the storm of missiles hurled against it. D'Aubusson lost no time in
making preparations to avert the danger. He ordered all the houses in
rear of the wall to be levelled; a deep semicircular ditch was then dug,
and behind this a new wall, constructed of the stones and bricks from
the houses destroyed, was built, and backed with an earthen rampart of
great thickness and solidity.

The work was carried on with extraordinary rapidity. The grand master
himself set the example, and, throwing aside his robes and armour,
laboured with pick and shovel like the commonest labourer. This excited
the people to the highest pitch of enthusiasm, and all classes threw
themselves into the task. Knights and slaves, men, women, and children,
and even the inmates of the convents and nunneries, aided in the work,
and when at last the outer wall fell, and the Turks thought that success
was at hand, the pasha saw with astonishment and dismay that entry to
the city was still barred by a work as formidable as that which he had
destroyed at an enormous expenditure of ammunition. There was now a
short breathing time for the besieged; but the depression which the
failure of their efforts excited among the Turks, was shortly dispelled
by the arrival of a ship, with a despatch from Constantinople, in which
the pasha was informed that the sultan himself was about to proceed to
Rhodes with a reinforcement of a hundred thousand men, and a fresh park
of artillery.

Paleologus had some doubts as to whether the report was true or was
merely intended to stimulate him to new efforts for the speedy capture
of the place. Knowing well that the grand master was the heart and soul
of the defence, and that the failure of the assault was mainly due
to his energy and ability, he determined to resort to the weapon so
frequently in use in Eastern warfare--that of assassination. To this
end he employed two men, one a Dalmatian, the other an Albanian; these
presented themselves before the walls as deserters, and as there was no
reason for suspecting their tale, they were admitted within the gates,
and welcomed as having escaped from enforced service. They soon spread
the tale of the speedy coming of