Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/379

Rh the people at large. Your monstrous injuries against my most afflicted people have aroused my pity and indignation. I command you, therefore, instantly to surrender the island and fortress of Rhodes, and I give you my gracious permission to depart in safety with the most precious of your effects, or if you desire to remain under my government I shall not require of you any tribute, or do aught in diminution of your liberties or against your religion. If you are wise you will prefer friendship and peace to a cruel war. Since, if you are conquered, you will have to undergo all such miseries as are usually inflicted by those that are victorious, from which you will not be protected, either by your own forces, or by external aid, or by the strength of your fortifications, which I will overthrow to their foundations. If, therefore, you prefer my friendship to war there shall be neither fraud nor stratagem used against you. I swear this by the God of heaven, the Creator of the earth, by the four Evangelists, by the 4,000 prophets who have descended from heaven, chief amongst whom stands Mahomet, most worthy to be worshipped, by the shades of my grandfather and father, and by my own sacred, august, and imperial head.”

This letter was read by L’Isle Adam in full council. It was at once decreed that no other reply should be accorded than such as could be borne by the guns of the town. Any further parley would, indeed, have been fruitless, for by the time that this letter was being read at Rhodes, viz., on the 14th June, 1522, every preparation for the immediate commencement of the siege had been completed by Solyman. Mustapha pasha had been selected as the leader of his land forces, and Curtoglu, as admiral of the fleet, had the management of everything connected with their transport. The question of the strength of the Ottoman army is somewhat difficult to determine. Vertot, and most of the other European historians, place it at 140,000 men-at-arms, supplemented by 60,000 peasants from Wallachia and Bosnia, who were destined to execute the pioneering operations of the besieging force. These figures sound incredibly large when .placed in comparison with a garrison which could only count from six to seven thousand men of all ranks and