Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/373

Rh quarters, I myself have returned in triumph to my court at Constantinople.” L’Isle Adam was not slow in perceiving the covert menace of this letter. He therefore returned a reply breathing a still more open spirit of hostility. It ran as follows:—Brother Philip Villiers de L’Isle Adam, Grand- Master of Rhodes, to Solyman, sultan of the Turks, I have right well comprehended the meaning of your letter, which has been presented to me by your ambassador. Your propositions for a peace between us are as pleasing to me as they will be obnoxious to Curtoglu. This pirate, during my voyage from France, tried to capture me unawares, in which, when he failed, owing to my having passed into the Rhodian Sea by night, he eudeavoured to plunder certain merchantmen. that were being navigated by the Venetians; but scarcely had my fleet left their port than he had to fly and to abandon the plunder which he had seized from the Cretan merchants. Farewell.”

To this bold epistle the sultan again replied, and endeavoured to inveigle the Grand-Master into sending a dignitary of the Order as an ambassador to Constantinople. He was in hopes that he might thus be enabled to extort valuable information with respect to the island and fortifications. L’Isle Adam was too well acquainted with Turkish treachery to intrust any member of his fraternity to the power of the wily Solyman, and the event shortly proved the wisdom of his precaution. A native of Rhodes, who had been despatched by his fellow-townsmen to open a negotiation with the Turks on the Lycian shore, was treacherously made captive and carried away to Constantinople. There, with the most complete disregard of the laws of civilized nations, he was, by order of Solyman, cruelly tortured, and a confession extorted from him of all that he knew concerning the fortifications of Rhodes.

It was now clear that no negotiation could any longer stave off the impending blow, and L’Isle Adam prepared himself with prompt energy to resist it manfully. Envoys were sent to all the courts of Europe to implore assistance in a struggle the result of which might prove a matter of so great moment to Christendom. Unfortunately, the emperor Charles V. and the French king Francis were too deeply engaged in their own broils to give any heed to the cry for assistance which arose