Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/451

Rh has not recorded how the Turk was treated, or whether La Valette avenged himself for the indignities he had suffered at the hands of Abda. He was in due course ransomed from his slavery, and was shortly afterwards appointed governor of the fortress of Tripoli, at a time when it was difficult to find a man qualified, and at the same time willing, to accept that onerous post. After his recall from thence, he attained successively to the position of bailiff of Lango, chief-admiral of the fleet, and grand-prior of St. Gilles. On the arrival of the grand-prior of France, after the hurricane of 1555, La Valette resigned in his favour the post of commander of the fleet, and the Grand-Master, La Sangle, was so struck by this disinterested act, that he named him his lieutenant, an office which La Valette continued to fill until he was himself elected Grand-Master in August, 1557.

His first efforts, on assuming the magisterial office, were directed towards the recall of the chiefs of the Bohemian and Venetian priories to the allegiance which for many years they had cast off. In this he was so successful that a deputation was despatched to Malta from the recusant priories, praying to be once more received into the bosom of the fraternity, and pledging themselves to the punctual payment of their annual responsions for the future. By this wise and politic measure the influence and stability of the Order were largely increased, and its revenues much augmented, at a time when the course of events seemed to forebode a great strain upon both. La Valette also reversed the sentence which had been passed on the marshal La Vallier, for the loss of Tripoli. His discriminating judgment perceived from the first that this unfortunate knight had been sacrificed to popular clamour. The Grand-Master La Sangle had so far recognized the injustice of the original sentence as to release the prisoner from the close confinement in which he had been kept by D’Omedes. It was now the privilege of La Valette completely to wipe away the stain upon the honour of La Valuer, and in restoring to him the habit of which he had been stripped, publicly to proclaim his total innocence of the crime laid to his charge, and the consequent injustice of the sentence that had been infficted.

At about this time the viceroy of Sicily, acting under the