Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/506

472 army had not been completed when Mustapha received more accurate intelligence as to the munbers of the advancing force. His proud spirit was struck with indignation at the thought that he should thus hastily have abandoned his position upon the approach of a body of troops so far inferior in number to his own. A council of war was promptly summoned, in which it was decided, by a slender majority, that the troops should be again landed and marched into the interior of the island to encounter the new enemy. This decision caused the greatest dismay and consternation amongst the disorganized Turks, who had trusted that their labours and perils were at last ended. They were, with the utmost difficulty, torn from the ships in which they had hoped to be borne away from the scene of so many hardships and privations. Mustapha was a man endowed with too much determination of purpose to allow the discontent of a mutinous soldiery to divert him from his aim. A body of about 9,000 men was, therefore, landed in St. Paul’s Bay, to the north of the island, and with this force he advanced to meet the enemy, now lying between him and the town.

The viceroy had placed his army under the command of an Italian officer named Ascanio Corneo, second to whom was Alvarez Sandeo, a Spanish knight who had on several occasions greatly distinguished himself. La Valette sent timely notice to these officers that a body of Turks was being once more landed, and would probably advance against them. Corneo, upon receipt of this intelligence, took decisive measures to meet the attack, lie secured a very strong position on the summit of a ridge in front of the casal or village of Nasciar, where what is geologically termed the great fault of Malta runs almost across the island, dividing it into two nearly equal parts with a sudden and very considerable drop of level between them. Along the crest of this line he hastily threw up intrenchments, behind which ho proposed to await the approach of the Turks. He had, however, those under his command who could ill brook such a defensive policy. A body of 200 knights, each accompanied by several armed followers, had been formed into a battalion which was by far the most efficient in his little army. These knights were burning with eagerness to cross swords at once with their hated enemy, and to avenge in the blood of the Moslem the loss