Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/295

Rh the cannon which was thundering at the ramparts, or the assault which was threatening at the breach. To harass the enemy behind their trenches D’Aubusson constructed a large wooden catapult, which threw huge pieces of rock into the covered ways and batteries. These fragments were so heavy that they crushed in the temporary blindages which the Turks had arranged for shelter, and as Dupuis has recorded, “some Turk or other always remained dead under the weight.” This weapon was facetiously termed the tribute, the rocks which it hurled, and which so seriously incommoded the besiegers, being the only tribute the knights were prepared to offer to the sultan.

Whilst this effective machine was working its will upon the assailants, the defenders were carrying on a little subterranean strategy on their own side. Driving galleries beneath the breach, they made openings into the ditch, through which they gradually conveyed away much of the stone with which it was being filled. This material they banked up against their retrenchment, thus greatly adding to its solidity. The work was carried on so briskly under cover of the night, that the amount of the filling which the Turks had with immense labour deposited in the ditch began to shrink perceptibly. For some days they were puzzled to account for this strange phenomenon; after a time, however, the robbery became so palpable that the pasha divined what was going on. lie foresaw, therefore, that unless he took measures to deliver a speedy assault the road by which he hoped to cross into the town would be carried away en masse.

Prior to making his great attempt, which recent experience had taught him must, even if successful, cost him the lives of many of his bravest troops, he thought it advisable to try and secure a capitulation. A parley was demanded in his name, to which the Grand-Master readily consented, not with any idea of surrender, but merely that he might gain further time for the strengthening of his retrenchments. The following day was appointed for the interview, and at the hour named the Turkish envoy, Soliman Bey, made his appearance on the counterscarp, at a point directly opposite the breach. D’Aubusson had appointed Anthony Gaultier, the castellan of