of the Galleys, to join forces and to repair to Sicily, placing
themselves under the orders of the Duke of Medina-Celi, who was expressly
charged to take no action save by the advice of the Grand Master. The
expedition assembled, the Duke took it to Malta, where it wintered, and in
the spring it sailed and attacked Tripoli.

They found this fortress, however, in a very different state from that
which they expected. Dragut, says De Vertot, "avoit faire terasser les
murailles de cette place." Bastions had been constructed, and every
advantage taken for defence which was permitted by the terrain, or that the
art of fortification admitted at this epoch. The castle, which was not
advantageously placed, was, notwithstanding, put in a state of defence by
an enormous expenditure of money. Great towers, in which were mounted many
big guns, defended the entrance to the port, which had become the
headquarters of the vessels owned by Dragut, and also of those corsairs who
sailed their craft under the crescent flag of the Sultan of Constantinople.
It was against such a fortress as this that the Duke of Medina-Celi went
up: we have no space to deal here with the details of this attack, which
ended in the hopeless and irremediable defeat of the Christian forces. The
Duke was an incompetent commander; he was opposed to one of the greatest
leaders of the age--an expert in almost every branch of the science of war,
in command of a large body of the fiercest fighters of the day, who ever
feared the wrath of Dragut more than the swords of the enemy.

La Valette, though he mourned over the repulse of the Christian forces from
Tripoli, did not on that account allow his pursuit of the infidel to grow
faint; the galleys of "the Religion" were always at sea, and both the
corsairs and the Ottoman Turks were perpetually losing valuable ships and
costly merchandise. Under the General of the Galleys, the Commandeur Gozon
de Melac, and that celebrated chevalier, the Commandeur de Romegas, the sea
forces of the Knights were everywhere in evidence. Into the hands of the
Christians fell the Penon de Velez, situated on the northern coast of
Africa opposite to Malaga--a fortress much frequented by the corsairs; the
Goletta at Tunis was also taken, and the pirates became so much alarmed
that they demanded succour from Constantinople. They represented to Soliman
that, at this rate, the whole of Northern Africa would soon be in the hands
of the Christians t