Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/382

352 hurl back the ruthless invader from their shores, and the bones of thousands who had once mustered in that proud array lay whitened beneath their soil. The husbandman still, in the preparation of his land, every now and again turned up some relic to remind him of that strife of which he was so justly proud, and amidst those verdant plains with which the city was surrounded, many a patch of green more brilliant than the rest was pointed out as the spot where lay one of those numerous masses of slain, buried in haste and confusion after the retreat of their fellows.

With all these memorials of their former victory before their eyes, with the knowledge that the Rhodes of to-day was far more powerful and capable of resistance than that which had maintained itself so successfully forty years before, with the strains of martial music filling the air and exhilarating their hearts, with the summer sun flashing its rays upon many a knightly crest and broidered pennon, it was natural that they should enjoy a sense of confidence amounting to exultation, and that they should look with a feeling well-nigh of certainty for the moment when the foe, once more recoiling in dismay from their ramparts, should seek an ignominious safety in flight.

Some there were, however, whose hearts, in spite of all these brilliant auguries of success, were filled with dread. They well knew that the might of Mahomet was, even at its zenith, far inferior to that of the emperor who now occupied his throne. Solyman’s career had, to the present moment, been one unbroken succession of triumphs; the power had not as yet appeared which could withstand the vigour of his attack; the army which was now pouring its endless battalions upon the shores of their fair isle far exceeded that which they had before successfully resisted, not in mere numbers only, but in every detail of its equipment, and was led by generals trained to victory beneath the redoubted banner of their sultan. Under these conditions it might well prove that the constancy and bravery even of the knights of St. John would be unavailing, and that they might yet live to see the day when the Moslem standard should wave over those ramparts whereon they were now standing, and which had been for upwards of 200 years maintained in proud and honourable security.