ieges from the Turks. The first of these is described
at length by the knight Merri Dupuis "temoin oculaire" who sets down: "Je,
Mary Dupuis gros et rude de sens et de entendement je veuille parler et
desscrire au plus bref que je pourray et au plus pres de la verite selon
que je pen voir a lueil." The description of that of 1485 is written by
another eye-witness, the Commandeur de Bourbon, to whom "ma semble bon et
condecent a raison declairer premierement les causes qui out incite mon
poure et petit entendement a faire cest petit oeuvre."

But we have no space to follow these gallant Knights, and it must suffice
to say that on both occasions, after incredible exertions and terrible
slaughter on both sides, the attacks of the Turks were eventually repulsed.

It was reserved for Soliman the Magnificent to finally vanquish the Knights
and to expel them from Rhodes; from July 1522 until January 1523 the
Knights under the heroic Villiers de L'Isle Adam maintained an all unequal
struggle against the vast hosts of the Crescent, which were perpetually
reinforced. At last, on January 1st, 1523, the Knights, by virtue of a
treaty with Soliman, which was honourably observed on both sides, evacuated
the island in which they had been established for nearly two hundred and
twenty years.

By favour of Charles V. the Knights on October 26th, 1530, took charge of
the islands of Malta and Gozo, and established themselves therein; still
under the Grand Mastership of L'Isle Adam, whose sword and helmet are still
religiously kept in a small church in Vittoriosa, just at the back of the
Admiral Superintendent's house in the present dockyard.

The knights fortified the islands and there abode, until in 1565 the
Ottoman returned once more to the attack.

It may be said that heroism is a relative term, that it has many uses and
applications all equally truthful. On the side of mere physical courage
almost every man who took part in that memorable siege of Malta in the year
1565 may have been said to have earned the title of hero. No man's foot
went back; no man's courage quailed; no man's face blanched when called
upon to face perils so appalling that they meant an almost inevitable and
speedy death; this was true or Christian and Moslem alike. The death-roll
on either side was so tremendous as to prove this contention up to the
hilt. From May 18th to September 8th, 1565--that is to say, in one hundred
and thirteen days--thirty thousand Mo