t
recovering from his wounds.

"As it seems probable, Sir Fabricius," he said, after the first
greetings to the knight, "that the Turks will favour you with another
visit, I have brought you five watchdogs. They are countrymen of mine,
and were among those who navigated the fire ships the other day. Sir
John Boswell has sent them down; they are, of course, accustomed to
keep watch at night. One of them is mate of their vessel, and will be in
command of them; he speaks a little Italian, and so will understand any
orders you may give him. I have been speaking to him as we came down; he
will divide his men into two watches, and will himself be on guard all
night. Will you assign them some quiet place where they can sleep in the
daytime? They can erect a shelter with a piece of sail cloth and a few
bits of board, and they will, of course, be furnished with food."

"I shall be very glad to have them, for I am always restless at night,
lest those on watch should close their eyes. You see, they have quite
made up their minds that this fort will not be attacked again, and so
are less inclined to be vigilant than they would be, did they think that
an attack was impending."

Now that there was reason to believe that St. Nicholas might again be
attacked, Gervaise was frequently there with orders or inquiries from
the grand master. A number of vessels in the harbour were fitted up as
fire ships, so as to be in readiness when the attack came. He was about
to start early one morning when he saw Roger Jervis coming up with a
heavy anchor on his shoulder.

"Why, what are you bringing that up here for?" he asked. "Have you been
diving; for I see your clothes are dripping with water?"

"Ay, ay, sir, I have been in the water, and that Italian commander
told me to come straight up here to tell the grand master all about the
story; and right glad am I to have met you, for I should have made but
a poor fist of it alone; I don't know more of their lingo than just to
talk a few words of it."

"Then you had better tell me the story before I take you in."

"Well, it was like this, Sir Knight: I had Hudson and Jeffreys posted
upon the wall, and I thought I would take a turn down on the rocks, for
it was a dark night, and you can see much farther when you are by the
edge of the water than you can when you are at the masthead. I sat there
for an hour, and was thinking that it was about time to go up and turn
out the other watch, when I saw