Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/277

Rh the unprepared state of the island, the decay of the fortifications, which they asserted were old and crumbling, and the paucity of its garrison, that he at length decided to carry out his long-cherished design. The chief command of the forces destined for the operation was intrusted to a fourth renegade, a Greek of the imperial house of Paleologus, named Messih, who held the rank of Capoudan Pasha. This man had been present at the capture of Constantinople. To save his life he had forsworn his religion and taken service under Mahomet. With his new master he rapidly gained honour and advancement. Like all renegades, he showed the utmost zeal in persecuting those of his former faith, and the knights of Rhodes had in particular been distinguished by his bitterest animosity. The sultan therefore deemed that he would be a very fit agent to accomplish their destruction. This appointment was by no means distasteful to the Capoudan Pasha, as, owing to the seductive and glowing accounts which his fellow-renegades had given of the facilities of the enterprise, he was most anxious to secure the opportunity for distinction, and for raising himself yet higher in his new profesion.

Whilst preparations were thus going on at Constantinople, the knights were, on their side, taking every measure to insure the success of their defence. At this critical juncture they were gladdened by a proposal from the sultan of Egypt to enter into an affiance with them. That prince beheld with a jealous eye the impending attack by his powerful eastern neighbour on the fortress of Rhodes. It did not accord with his policy that the island should fall into the hands of one already too mighty for the safety of his own empire. A treaty was speedily concluded, whereby the knights were not only secured from any aggression on the side of Egypt during their struggle with the Turks, but were able to draw large supplies of provisions from their new friends. One measure was still considered necessary to render their security more complete, and that was to remove temporarily from the powers of D’Aubusson those checks and restrictions with which the jealousy of preceding ages had fettered the Grand-Mastership. Now that they were led by one in whom they had such unbounded confidence, and when the crisis required that he should be able to act with a promptitude and.