Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/273

Rh the statements of the principal actors, “around the city of Rhodes lay the most admirable country in the world for carrying on a siege; for all around the said town were numerous gardens filled with little churches and Greek chapels, with old walls and stones and rooks, behind which cover could always be found against the garrison, to such an extent that if all the artillery in the world had been inside the town, it could do no harm to those that were without, provided they did not approach too close.”

There has been much criticism on the defensive arrangements of D’Aubusson because he did not occupy the dominant hill of St. Stephen with an outwork. It must, however, be borne in mind that the use of artillery had been of too recent introduction, and was as yet in too crude a state, for the disadvantages of this point to have been as apparent then as they are now. Moreover, the policy of isolating a portion of the garrison and stationing them where they would, in all probability, have been cut off by the vastly superior forces of the besiegers, seems somewhat doubtful. At all events, it is clear that contemporary criticism did not take this line, since even after the experience of the first siege no attempt was made during the forty-two years which elapsed between that and the second to remedy the supposed defect. We may therefore rest assured, that had this hill presented the disadvantages which to the modem engineer seem so apparent, the keen eye and commanding genius of D’Aubusson would not have neglected its defence. As a matter of fact, the hill never was used by the Turks for battering purposes, but only as a camping ground.

Such were the town and island, which, after being kept for a space of nearly forty years in a state of perturbation and alarm, were destined to witness at length the storm of invasion break over them. Once again did D’Aubusson pen a circular to his grand-priors, urging upon them the immediate transmission of reinforcements and supplies. A copy of this document is still in existence among the papal archives, and there is something very thrilling and exciting in the plain manly language in which his demand is couched. Without any straining after effect, or the slightest attempt