Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/384

354 under cover of the night. This fugitive, after having given correct information as to the magnitude of the force, stated that there was great reluctance on the part of the janissaries to engage in the operation. The failure of the former siege was well known to them, and the almost superhuman valour displayed on that occasion by the knights of St. John had lost none of its terrors by constant repetition. They were well aware that since that day much had been done to strengthen the fortress, and they looked upon Rhodes, defended as it was by such a frowning mass of batteries, and held by the lion hearts before whom their forefathers had so often recoiled, as almost impregnable.

The ill success of their first attempts in pushing forward the siege works, and the fearful slaughter of the pioneers by the harassing sorties of the knights, completed their disaffection. Murmurs and remonstrances soon became loud throughout the camp, and it was with difficulty that the troops could be induced to advance to what they considered certain destruction. Pir Mehmed pasha (called in most of the European histories Pyrrhus pasha), a general and counsellor in whom Solyman placed the greatest confidence, deemed it necessary to report this disaffection to his master, informing him that nothing short of his own immediate presence on the spot could control the turbulence of the mutineers. Solyman had from the first intended to take part in the siege in person, but this message hastened his movements, and he soon appeared on the scene at the head of a large body of troops.

By a judicious mixture of clemency and severity, he rapidly restored the spirit of his army, and the late mutineers, ashamed in the presence of their sultan of the murmurings and insubordination in which they had so lately indulged, now became