Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/471

Rh of missiles that rained upon them. Had it not been for the promptitude with which La Valette poured his reinforcements into the fort its defenders would have melted away before the murderous fire of the besiegers. In this emergency Miranda proved himself a valuable acquisition, and his ingenuity displayed itself in the numerous devices with which he succeeded in constructing shelter from the Turkish artillery. Meanwhile the fire from the large batteries which played upon the exposed scarps of the work from the summit of Mount Sceberras, aided by that from point Dragut, as well as from some Turkish galleys at long range, which were lying outside the harbour, speedily reduced the whole enceinte to a mass of ruin. It was not a breach of any particular part of the rampart; it was practically almost a demolition of the whole. The bravest now felt that all had been done that was possible to retard the capture of the crumbling fort, and that the time had arrived when, unless they were to be buried beneath the ruins, they should be at once withdrawn and the post abandoned to the enemy.

The reputation of Medrano being such that his report would be free from all suspicion of panic, he was selected to return to the Bourg and explain to the Grand-Master the desperate state of affairs. La Valette could not in his heart deny that all had been done which ingenuity could devise to protract the defence, and that the fort had been maintained against overwhelming odds, with a constancy and devotion worthy of the highest praise. It was also but too evident that, if the lives of these gallant men were not to be deliberately sacrificed, they should be now recalled. Still he could not bring himself to direct the abandonment of the post. By its maintenance the siege of the Bourg was being deferred, and the time prolonged during which the succours so anxiously expected from Sicily might arrive. Toledo had in his last communication to La Valette, insisted on the retention of St. Elmo as one of the essential conditions of his support. Unless, he said, that point were maintained, he should not feel justified in hazarding the emperor’s fleet in any attempt to raise the siege. La Valette felt, therefore, that so much hung on the issue of this struggle, that he was compelled to suppress all feelings of compassion,