s element in which they were so much at home. They
aided most materially in the general result, and indeed, but for their
gallant services, the Knights could not have held out to the close, when
the reinforcements arrived.

This decisive victory gained over the Ottoman power was not alone of
great significance to the Order of St. John, but it was of immense
importance to all the dwellers in the Mediterranean ports west of the
Levant, relieving the several exposed nationalities from the fear of
predatory visits of Turkish or Algerine galleys. These notorious
corsairs had for centuries made the great inland sea the terror of all
honest seamen, seriously crippling its commerce. But at the siege of St.
Elmo the most daring leader of the pirates had lost his life, and his
followers were no more to be feared, at least for a considerable period.
By their brave and successful defense of Malta, the Knights permanently
fixed the boundary of the Ottoman power, so far as regarded its possible
extension westward. Up to this time, Solyman II., like his father,
called the "Magnificent," had his eyes fixed on Europe, the eventual
conquest of which they both boldly resolved upon, but the tide of
successful warfare in that direction was now stayed. Advance upon the
Christian powers was quite impossible, while there remained upon their
flank and rear so efficient and implacable an enemy as the Knights of
Malta.

The admiration and gratitude of the Christian world at large were
manifested by liberal donations from all quarters to swell the depleted
treasury of the order, while earnest and able aspirants hastened to join
its ranks. The Knights, by their display of indomitable courage and
prowess in war, justly won the name of the heroes of Christendom. They
were men, as we have seen, of whose morality the less said the better,
but who as soldiers merited their unrivaled reputation.

The rage of Sultan Solyman at the complete defeat of his army and the
return of his unsuccessful general was terrible. He immediately resolved
to gather another army and flotilla, with which to conquer Malta, to
lead this expedition himself, and to take with him a hundred thousand
soldiers to insure victory. Preparations were accordingly begun in the
great arsenal of Constantinople by collecting arms and ammunition for
the carrying out of this purpose, especially including the storage of
large quantities of gunpowder. When this had progressed for a few
months