Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/453

Rh neighbouring strongholds that the first efforts of the Algerines were directed. On the 15th March, 1563, Hassan, their leader, commenced the attack on Mers-el-Kebir, detaching a small portion of his force for the investment of Oran, which was only three miles distant. For nearly three months the siege was carried on with the utmost vigour, and the assaults delivered by the Algerines were both frequent and desperate. The governor of Mers-el-Kebir, Don Martin de Cordova, was a man equal to the emergency, and his resistance was so firm that when, on the 8th June, a relieving force despatched by Philip hove in sight, the fortress was still in his possession. Hassan was compelled at once to abandon the siege and retire in haste. Great were the rejoicings at this success, and a feeling of exultation spread through the maritime provinces of southern Europe, to which they had for some years been strangers.

Philip was not slow in following up his advantage, and carrying the war into the enemy’s country. He wrested several important acquisitions from the hands of his discomfited antagonist, in doing which he was warmly supported by the knights of St. John. The Moors appealed to the sultan for aid, and suggested that he should wreak his vengeance on the Order in its island home. At this crisis an event occurred which, though apparently insignificant in itself, sufficed to determine the enraged sultan on immediate action. The Maltese galleys had succeeded, after a desperate struggle, in capturing a Turkish galleon armed with twenty guns and manned by 200 janissaries. This galleon was the property of the chief eunuch of the sultan’s harem, and several of its fair inmates held shares in the valuable cargo, which Spanish historians have estimated at over 80,000 ducats. All the power of the seraglio was therefore exerted to induce Solyman to avenge the affront by a signal chastisement; and the attack on Malta, when pleaded for by bright eyes and. rosy lips, was at length decreed by the amorous sultan. He determined as a fitting close to that long and glorious reign which had earned for him the title of Magnificent, to drive the knights from their new acquisition as he had in the commencement of his reign driven them from Rhodes. His preparations for this undertaking were made upon a most formidable scale, and the