no choice on her part, whether she would consent to the arrangement or
not. The fruit of this marriage was a son, whom the father named Scipio,
and had baptized into the Roman Catholic faith. This boy, when he grew
up to man's estate, as the story runs, to fulfill a solemn vow made to
his mother hastened to Constantinople, where he enlisted in the Ottoman
army, and promptly embraced Mohammedanism. By his extraordinary valor
and intelligence as an officer in the Sultan's service, he rose rapidly
to the command of the Turkish army. In this position he proved himself
one of the most able and active enemies the Christians had to contend
with. He caused great destruction in their ranks, because of the
knowledge he possessed of their modes of warfare. When he was engaged in
battle with the Christians, his war-cry was, "Remember Mondon!"

In the lapse of years, aggravated by the numberless onslaughts of the
Knights upon their commerce, also envying the great improvement and
manifest prosperity evinced at Malta under the management of L'Isle Adam
and his successor, La Vallette, Turkish jealousy was aroused to the
highest point of endurance. The commerce of Egypt and Syria was in
danger of annihilation. The Knights of St. John were virtual masters of
the narrow seas,--they were the "Christian" corsairs of the Levant! In
the forty-three years which had transpired since the Knights were driven
from Rhodes, the Turks had many times seen cause to regret the clemency
which had been exercised toward the Christians in allowing them to
depart from the island in peace. The Sultan's royal liberality, it must
be confessed, had been ill-rewarded. The Order of St. John had proved to
be more of a thorn in the side of the Ottoman power than when its
stronghold was on the nearer island. It is not surprising, therefore,
that the Sultan resolved again to attack the Knights in their more
recent home, and thereby not only to avenge the great losses which his
people had sustained on sea and land, but also so effectually to
demolish the power of the Knights as to disperse and break up the order
altogether. Twice the Sultan brought large, well-organized forces to
Malta for this purpose, first in 1546 and again in 1551, on both of
which occasions the Ottomans were ignominiously defeated, and as usual
with great slaughter. Their admitted losses aggregated from ten to
twelve thousand men, killed outright, on each of these occasions. Their
perseverance un