Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/393

Rh up to them the whole plunder of the city. This offer, combined with the knowledge that they were fighting under the immediate eye of their sovereign, had roused them to a pitch of enthusiasm such as he fondly hoped must prove the precursor of victory. If the assailants were stimulated with the hope of gain and the prospect of distinction, the defenders, on the other hand, were equally nerved to the combat by their religious devotion and by the energy which despair had brought to their aid. Solyman had, in consequence, the mortification of witnessing from his lofty post of observation the utter discomfiture of his forces. Sounding a retreat, he descended to his tent, and in the bitterness of his mortification resolved to wreak his vengeance on those who had originally counselled the expedition. Both Pir Mehmed and Mustapha were condemned to death, and the sentence wold have been carried into effect had not the other leaders interceded and persuaded him to reverse the decree. They were, however, banished from the camp, and compelled to return to Asia, whilst the siege was still in progress. The pirate admiral, Curtoglu, was reserved for a more humiliating fate, having to undergo the degradation of corporal punishment on the poop of his own galley, after which he was ignominiously expelled from the fleet, the reason alleged for this severity being that he had neglected to aid the land forces by making a naval diversion.

Whilst these successes were enabling the garrison to maintain their resistance, the first seeds of those disastrous results which eventually led to the loss of the town began to show themselves. Although before the commencement of the siege it had been reported to L’Isle Adam by the commissioners appointed for that purpose, that the quantity of powder in the magazines was amply sufficient, even if the siege were protracted for a year, little more than a month had elapsed before it became manifest that the supply was too limited for the occasion. In addition to the powder in the magazines, there were large stores of saltpetre within the town, and L’Isle Adam promptly established a manufactory of gunpowder under the superintendence of two knights and a committee of citizens. Even with this aid it soon became necessary to practise the most rigid economy in the