the famous
Dragut himself appeared, with thirteen galleys and two galleots, on board
of which were sixteen hundred men.

What must not have been the despairing feelings with which the defenders
viewed the arrival of this augmentation to the swarming ranks of their
foes! From afar they noted the vessels and knew, while Philip of Spain and
Garzia de Toledo still procrastinated, that now was added to the number of
their enemies the most famous captain who served the autocrat of the
Eastern world. Very naturally the arrival of Dragut was hailed with
acclamation by the Turks: every gun in that vast armada spoke in salute,
every trumpet blared, every drum rolled to welcome the man honoured of the
Padishah, notorious throughout the whole world of Europe for his implacable
enmity to the Knights. The first preoccupation of the corsair was to inform
himself as to the conduct of the operations. These, when disclosed to him,
by no means met with his approval. This real leader immediately made it
clear to Piali and Mustafa that which they should have done. In the first
place they should have made themselves masters of the castle of Gozo, and
then captured the Citta Notabile. By doing this the supplies to the town
and fortress of Il Borgo would have been cut off: besides--and more
important than aught else--they would in this manner have closed the road
to those succours expected by the Christians. Piali, who had desired from
the first to undertake nothing without the advice of Dragut, now said that
the siege of St. Elmo was not so far advanced after all, and, if the Basha
of Tripoli should so direct, it could be raised at once. To this, however,
Dragut would by no means consent.

"That would have been well enough," he said, "if the affair had not gone so
far; but, after the opening of the trenches and several days of attack, it
is not possible to raise the siege without sullying the honour of the
Sultan and discouraging the valour of the soldiers."

It cannot be denied that, in acting as he did, the corsair displayed a
self-restraint and a loyalty to the Sultan hardly to be expected in the
circumstances. The jealousy which so often obtains among rival commanders
was singularly in evidence in the forces of the Padishah: Dragut had good
cause to be dissatisfied with the dispositions which had been made, and
yet, for the reasons which we have quoted, he allowed them to proceed.
Before the Basha had left Tripoli he had been engaged in