Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/462

428 the castle of St. Angelo, answered from the forts of St. Michael and St. Elmo, announced to the people of Malta that the enemy’s fleet was in sight. At this signal all the inhabitants who had not previously abandoned their homesteads flocked into either the Bourg or the Città Notabile, knowing well that if they were surprised in the open country their doom would be slavery if not death.

The Turkish fleet consisted of 130 galleys and 50 vessels of smaller size, together with a number of transports which were laden with the battering train and stores of the army. The troops embarked on board this fleet consisted of upwards of 30,000 men, of whom 4,500 were janissaries. It may be well here to say a few words on the subject of this redoubtable body, for so many years the chief support of the Turkish empire. Once in every five years a general conscription was levied upon the children of all Christians resident within the empire between the ages of seven and twelve. Such of them as displayed any pre-eminence either of mind or body were carried away to Constantinople, and from that moment became lost to their parents for ever. Those amongst this selected body who exhibited the greatest promise of bodily strength were chosen for the corps of janissaries. Every effort was made from the moment of their selection to endue them with the martial spirit of their calling. Marriage was strictly forbidden; they had therefore no family ties to divide their affections. The esprit de corps thus fostered increased with their age, and they formed a body of troops upon whom the strictest reliance could be placed in the most desperate emergency. Such were the men who composed an important part of the force which Solyman had despatched against Malta. The direction of the fleet was intrusted to Piali, the same admiral who had captured so many Spanish galleys in the late unfortunate expedition of the Sicilian viceroy. The army was placed under the command of Mustapha, a veteran general in whose skill and judgment the sultan placed the utmost reliance, but who mingled with his warlike virtues much ferocity and cruelty of disposition.

After some little cruising backward and forward, the Turks eventually disembarked, partly in the Marsa Scirocco, and