he
Knights were so expert. It is said that in the hands of a powerful man
familiar with it, no weapon is so destructive at close quarters as the
broad-bladed, keen-edged battle-axe of those days. The Orientals
depended almost solely upon their crude firearms,--the
blunderbuss,--together with their light swords and spears.

Early in the siege of which we are speaking, the commander of the
Mohammedan army resorted energetically to mining, in furtherance of
their attack upon Fort St. Elmo, but the Knights were no novices at
counter mining. On one occasion the Turkish engineers had sprung a
device of this sort so near to the defensive bastions as to make a wide
breach in the stout walls. This was not unexpected by the Knights, who
had, in fact, been on the watch for just such an opportunity. Hardly had
the shower of the debris ceased to fall, before the enemy rushed forward
to enter the fort by the newly made breach. The turbaned throng, a
thousand men and more, with waving banners and upraised swords, crowded
together upon the spot, little heeding what was to follow. And yet there
was a moment's pause, a moment of utter silence, as though those
soldiers of the crescent instinctively waited for something to happen,
they knew not what. It was like the awful stillness which precedes the
hurricane at sea. The moment this pause occurred, the Knights sprung a
well-prepared mine beneath the very feet of the densely crowded body of
the enemy, blowing nearly two thirds of their immediate assailants to
instant death! Seven hundred Turks are said to have lost their lives at
that terribly fatal explosion, as though struck by lightning. The whole
Ottoman force rapidly withdrew in utter confusion and amazement.

The moral effect of this frightful catastrophe to their army led to
quiet in the Turkish camp for several days, though it did not fail to
create among the invaders a spirit of revenge which amounted almost to
madness.

Jean de La Vallette, Grand Master of the order, was well fitted for his
position in this great emergency. He was seen everywhere, even in the
thickest of the fight, praising the valor of the Knights and leading the
most hardy. Though he was gray with age, being threescore years and ten,
still his practiced arm was stout and able to wield the terrible
battle-axe with dire effect. He had always been famous for his
expertness with this weapon. He was the _beau ideal_ of the
soldier-monk, and the true embodiment of