Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/296

268 Rhodes, to be Ms representative on the occasion, and as the breadth of the ditch separated the negotiators, the conference was audible to every one. It was opened by the Turk, who, after having paid a just tribute to the gallantry of the defence, urged upon the knights the propriety of an immediate surrender. “You have,” said he, “done all that lay within the power of mortal men to avert the catastrophe now impending over you; you have immortalized your names by a defence unparalleled in history, but do not carry that resistance too far; let not the madness of despair prompt you to protract your efforts after they have become manifestly hopeless. The breach in your wall is gaping wide and invites our attacking columns; forty thousand of the best troops in the empire are eagerly awaiting the moment which is to give you over into their power; do not by your prolonged obstinacy bring down upon your city the calamities inevitably incident to an assault. Yield yourselves to the clemency of our sovereign; become his allies and your lives shall be spared, your property protected, and you yourselves permitted to retain the government of the island in the strict bonds of friendship with us. If you refuse this offer your lives will be forfeited, your wives and daughters dishonoured, and your children sold into slavery, your city will be utterly destroyed, and the memory of it swept from the face of the earth. Such is the inevitable fate of those who persist in opposing the mighty Mahomet. Choose, therefore, whether you will be his friends or his victims.”

To this speech, so well calculated to excite both the hopes and the fears of the population, Gaultier responded in terms of proud disdain. He assured the envoy that he was mistaken in supposing the town incapable of further resistance; it was true the ramparts were breached, but retrenchments had been constructed behind the ruins, before which the assailants should meet the same fate that had befallen those who had twice vainly attempted the capture of St. Nicholas. As regarded the offers of capitulation, the treachery of the Turkish army in moments of triumph had been too frequently displayed to enable the besieged to place any reliance on their pledges. As to the alleged desire of Mahomet to be a friend and ally to the Order, he was employing a most unusual method to attain that object. If he were