cries are rising to heaven and afflicting the ears of
the Prophet of God: the son is demanding his father, the wife her husband
and her children. All, therefore, wait upon thee, upon thy justice, and thy
power, for vengeance upon their cruel and implacable enemies."

Contrary to all precedent, which enjoins the most perfect silence in the
mosque, these bold utterances were received with something more than
murmurs of applause: never in all his long and glorious reign had the great
and magnificent despot heard so plainly the voice of his people. Apart,
however, from eunuchs, women, and Mullahs, Soliman had long been importuned
by Dragut to take the course which was now being urged upon him with so
much insistence. There was at this time no warrior in all his _entourage_
for whose opinion the Sultan had the same respect as he had for that of the
ruler of Tripoli. Dragut had more than a tincture of learning: he was first
of all an incomparable leader of men and an entirely competent seaman. He
was also a scientific artillerist, and was learned in the technique of the
fortification of his time. Added to this he was--albeit by no means so
cruel as most of his contemporaries--one of those men before whom all
trembled: as we have seen in the case of the corsairs who defended
"Africa," "they feared the wrath of Dragut more than death itself."

It was this renowned leader who warned Soliman against the Knights; he
pointed out that they were far more dangerous now than they had been in
1523, the year of their expulsion from Rhodes. When established there they
were, so to speak, surrounded by the Turkish Empire; in Malta, on the
contrary, they were easily succoured from Sicily, which belonged to Spain,
another implacable enemy of the Moslem; that Malta lay right on the route
which all the ships of the Sultan must take on passage from the East to
Constantinople; and in consequence the Order was a standing and perpetual
menace to the trade of the Empire. All this was so undeniably true that so
shrewd a man and so competent a ruler as Soliman could not fail to be
impressed by the soundness of the reasoning.

Besides all this, he knew quite well that now he could not hold back, had
it been even against his inclination--which was by no means the case; for
there had arisen one of those storms of popular opinion--all the more
formidable because of their infrequency--before which even the most
hardened of despots must bend. Accordingly th