Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/503

Rh place as anticipated. Every member of the Order whose wounds were not so severe as positively to incapacitate him, had on this occasion left the infirmary and once more resumed his post upon the shattered ramparts. Yet even with this aid the number of the defenders had dwindled to a comparative handful. Nothing but their indomitable spirit and the demoralization which had so destroyed the vigour of the Turks, could have enabled them to maintain a successful resistance before the overwhelming odds which were brought against them. Once again, however, they were victorious, and the baffled Mustapha was compelled to withdraw his troops, now utterly cowed, from the scene of their latest failure.

For a week after this defeat the Turks attempted nothing further, but contented themselves with keeping up a sullen cannonade from their batteries. At length on the 1st of September Mustapha once more essayed his fortune at a last desperate assault, and on this occasion he used every incentive in his power by which his troops could be stimulated and their flagging vigour aroused. It was, however, all in vain; a spirit of disorganization and despondency had spread itself through their ranks; they declared that it was evidently not the will of Allah that they should become the masters of Malta, and loudly demanded to be carried away from the dreaded island where so many of their comrades had either found a bloody grave or were dying of pestilence like rotten sheep. It was not by men imbued with such feelings as these that victory was to be snatched from the determined and now utterly desperate garrison. Mustapha’s quailing and reluctant battalions recoiled almost without a blow from the firm front still maintained against their advance. The feebleness of this last effort spread the greatest exultation and the most sanguine expectations of ultimate success amongst the besieged. They began to hope that they should themselves be able, alone and unaided, to drive the enemy from their shores, as their predecessors at Rhodes had done in the glorious siege of 1480, and they almost ceased to wish for the presence of that relieving force whose coming had till then been looked for with such earnest desire.

This long-expected aid was, however, at length on its way to