under Noailles, seem to have received the direct
sanction of Louis XIV. Yet the old treaties between France and
the Porte were still in force; so that it was not without some
reason that Kiuprili replied, a few years later, to the Marquis
de Nointel's professions of amity on the part of France, "I know
that the French are our friends, but I always happen to find
them in the ranks of our enemies!"

[19] Villa is said to have produced before the senate of Venice
a letter from Morosini to the vizir, offering to betray him into
the hands of the Turks.

It was not till the beginning of June that the vizir recommenced active
operations against Candia; but the plan of attack was now changed. In
order to command the narrow entrance of the harbour,[20] and so cut off
the constant reinforcements which reached the besieged by sea, the
principal batteries were directed against the bastion of Sabionera,
(called by the Turks the _Kizil-Tabiyah,_ or Red Fort,) at the seaward
extremity of the works on one side, and against that of St Andrew on the
other; but the events of the siege during this year present nothing to
distinguish them from the endless succession of mines, sorties,
assaults, and countermines, which had marked the campaign of last year.
The Venetian commanders at length, seeing the Turks preparing to pass
the winter in their trenches, and sensible that (concentrated as the
forces of the two contending powers were now for the attack and defence
of a single fortress) they must eventually be overwhelmed by the
ponderous strength of the Ottoman empire, once more made overtures for
peace, offering an annual tribute for Candia, and the cession of the
rest of the island to the Porte; but the vizir sternly rejected the
proffered compromise; and his reply to the envoy, Molino--"The Sultan is
not a merchant, nor does he need money--he has but one word, and that
is--Candia,"--showed that the long dispute could only be decided by the
sword. Elated by the hope of speedy triumph, the Turks now ran their
approaches so close to the bastion of St Andrew, which was held by the
Maltese knights and militia, that the muzzles of the muskets almost
touched each other; and the vizir wrote to the Sultan, that they had
only three yards more of ground to win, when, at this critical moment,
the spirits of the besieged were revived by the arrival, early in
December, of the Duc de la Feuillade and the Count de St P