sacrificing
himself; well did these noble gentlemen know that there was none among them
like unto him, that his name and his influence were worth an army in
themselves. The outcry was so loud that La Valette had to yield; which he
did the more readily when he saw the splendid emulation among his brethren
to cross over to the beleaguered and crumbling fortress which promised
nothing but the grave to those who should pass within the circle of fire by
which it was now surrounded. To the Chevaliers Gonzales de Medran and de la
Motte was conceded the proud privilege for which all the Knights were
clamouring; and, accompanied by the tears and the prayers of their
brethren, they passed to that place where, if death were certain, honour at
least was immortal. Truly the heart warms somewhat to the days of chivalry
when one reads of what was done at the siege of Malta. The motto of
_Noblesse oblige_ was no dead letter in the sixteenth century. By this time
the whole of Europe was awake to the peril of the Order, and, galloping for
dear life across Europe, came the Knights, anxious and willing to share in
the danger. For most of these gentlemen Sicily was the goal at which they
aimed; arrived there they flung themselves into any boat or shallop which
they could hire, and, heedless of the risk of capture by the Turkish fleet,
totally ignorant of what was passing in Malta save that the infidel was at
her gates, they passed across the channel which separates the two islands
and joined their fellows at Il Borgo.

Greatly heartened by the reinforcements brought to them by de Medran and de
la Motte, the garrison of St. Elmo made a sortie, surprised the Turks in
their entrenchments, and, under cover of the guns of the fort, succeeded in
destroying nearly all the works which the enemy had so painfully built up.
The Turks, however, when they had recovered from the surprise, were in such
large numbers as to be able to rally and drive the Christians from the
vantage points which they had gained; and to oblige them once again to
retire into the fort. From this time onward there was never a day in which
the garrison and the besiegers were not hand to hand in the trenches.

Just after the first reinforcements had been thrown into St. Elmo there
arrived on the scene Ali, the Lieutenant of Dragut. This corsair came from
Alexandria with six galleys, on board of which were nine hundred men,
reinforcements for the Turkish army. A few days after this