Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/470

436 board in such close proximity to the Turkish fleet. Had they been sent they must have been accompanied by an ample guard. Such a diminution of his already too scanty force could not for a moment be contemplated. La Valette therefore sent off a fresh appeal for unconditional assistance.

Meanwhile he spared no effort to prolong the defence of St. Elmo. Fresh troops were every night introduced into the work to replace casualties. D’Eguaras and de Brogue had both been severely wounded in the last assault, and La Valette had directed their immediate return to the convent. All the writers who have described this siege have united in recording that both these knights refused to abandon their post. With respect to D’Eguaras, there is no doubt that such was the case, as his name appears in the list of the killed in the fort, but the evidence as regards de Broglio is different. In the first place there is no record of his death; but the strongest testimony that he availed himself of La Valette’s permission to retire into the Bourg is the fact that on the 13th June the Grand-Master, in council, appointed Don Melchior de Montserrat governor of St. Elmo, which he could not have done had not do Broglio resigned the post. The Spanish knight, La Cerda, who had previously shown so much panic, took this opportunity of returning to the Bourg amongst the other wounded, although his injury was so slight that it need in no way have incapacitated him from remaining at his post. The Grand-Muster was so indignant at this second exhibition of cowardice that he caused him to be imprisoned. Before the close of the siege, however, La Cerda had, by an honourable death in the face of the enemy, wiped out the stain thus cast upon his fame.

Now that both the covered way and ravelin had fallen into the hands of the besiegers, on the latter of which two guns had been mounted that enfiladed many parts of the rampart, it was difficult for the garrison to find shelter from the pitiless storm