Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/450

418 at Messina, and the Pope, not to be behindhand in the good work, furnished its crew from amongst his own galley slaves. The prior of St. Gilles forwarded a galleon laden with ainmurntion and troops, and the grand-prior of France proceeded to Malta in person, with two galleys, and tendered his services to the Grand-Master.

These patriotic efforts proved to be of vital importance. The corsair Dragut, trusting to find the island in a defenceless state, made a descent on it, and even attempted a landing. He was repelled with great loss by the aid of the new fleet, and the prior of France promptly carried the war into the enemy’s country by ravaging the coasts of Barbary. In this operation he was so successful that he returned to Malta with a vast accumulation of valuable spoil.

La Sangle died on the 17th August, 1557, and was succeeded by John Parisot de la Valette, who, during the last year of his predecessor’s rule, had filled the office of lieutenant of the Mastery, holding, at the same time, the grand-priory of St. Gilles. His name of Parisot was derived from his father’s fief, which was so called, but he is far better known to posterity by the family name of La Valette, which his deeds have rendered so illustrious. He was born in the year 1494, of a noble family of Quercy, and entered the Order at the age of twenty; he had been present at the siege of Rhodes in 1522, and followed the fortunes of the knights through their various wanderings after the loss of that island. Indeed, it is recorded of La Valette that, from the day of his first profession to that of his death, he never once left the convent except when cruising with the fleet. His successes as a naval commander soon singled him out from amongst his compeers, and he had, by his own unaided merits, raised himself step by step through the various dignities of the Order, until he now found himself elected its forty-seventh Grand-Master.

He had once been taken prisoner in an encounter with a Turkish corsair named Abda Racman, and during his captivity suffered great hardships and many indignities at the hands of his victor. Curiously enough, in later years he succeeded in capturing a galley commanded by Abda Racman, who thus, in his turn, became the prisoner of his former captive. History