Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/649

Rh The capture of his sultana had caused Ibrahim the most lively indignation, and he had in consequence threatened the direst vengeance against the island. Ills wrath was, however, eventually diverted to Candia, principally, as the Venetians asserted, on account of the shelter which had there been given to the knights and their prize. Whatever may have really been the immediate subject of quarrel, the Venetians and the Turks had ever held the most unfriendly relations towards each other, and it required but a spark to kindle at any moment the flame of war between them. Certain it is that before the close of 1644 Candia had been invaded by a Turkish force, and from that date the fight between the rival powers had raged in the island with unceasing rancour. The knights had rendered the most loyal assistance to the Venetians in this struggle, as by their profession they were bound to do. If, as was alleged, it was through an act of theirs that the horrors of war were called down on the unfortunate Candians, they were doubly bound to aid in the defence. Throughout the rule of Lascaris and that of his three immediate successors the strife continued to rage with alternating fortune, the chiefs of the Hospital maintaining their support both on sea and land. The Turks had, however, gradually gained the upper hand, and when, in 1663, Nicholas Cottoner assumed the dignity vacant by the death of his brother, the defence of Candia already presented a most unfavourable aspect. He nevertheless eontinued to render such aid as lay in his power.

The assistance which his predecessors had afforded during the lengthened struggle had been gratefully acknowledged by the doges of Venice. There is a letter from Bartuccio Valerio, the then doge, dated December 9th, 1656, addressed to Lascaris, in which he implores the Order to continue its usual aid to withstand the attacks of the Turks on the island of Candia, which were becoming more fierce and unrelenting than ever, knowing well that the extremity of the peril would be an additional inducement to the noble knights of Malta to endeavour, bot.h by sea and land, to gain back what had been lost, not only on account of their own thirst for glory, but also from their zeal for the general interests of Christianity. Another letter was addressed to Raphael Cottoner, in the year 1661, by the doge Domenico