Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/385

Rh fired with an anxious desire to distinguish themselves and merit his approbation.

Meanwhile a plot of the most dangerous character had been discovered within the city, the details of which had been arranged, and were to have been carried into execution, by a woman. She was a Turkish slave, who, eager for the success of her countrymen, and at the same time anxious to regain her own freedom, devised a scheme for setting fire to the town at several points, and giving admission to the besiegers during the confusion that would ensue. This design she communicated to several of her fellow-slaves, and had even been able to establish communications with the Turkish leaders. The hour for the attempt was fixed, and all the necessary arrangements made to insure success, when by some inadvertency on the part of one of the confederates, the plot became revealed to the authorities. The conspirators were at once seLzed and subjected to torture, under the pressure of which a confession was extorted from all concerned, excepting only the daring female who had devised the scheme, and who stoutly maintained her innocence. Her constancy remained unshaken to the last, and she suffered the extreme penalty of the law without having uttered one word to inculpate either herself or others. Of her guilt, however, if such an attempt can be called guilt on the part of one who was suffering all the cruelties and privations of slavery, there can be no doubt. Her severed limbs were exposed on the ramparts, where they served as a warning to deter others similarly situated from any further projects of the kind.

Suspicions of treason throughout this siege appear to have been very prevalent, and the rumours to that effect which were constantly circulating engendered a universal feeling of distrust highly prejudicial to the maintenance of good discipline. Many of these suspicions wore entirely groundless; but there lurked within the ramparts an amount of treachery amply sufficient to account for their existence. The Jewish doctor was still residing within the town, and he succeeded in