Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/664

628 commander of the Maltese contingent, fell gloriously. A fort had been seized by the allies, but was recaptured by the Turks, when the gallant Correa, advancing at the head of his force, amidst a storm of missiles, once more gained possession of the disputed point. That moment of victory was, however, his last, for in the very act of planting the White Cross banner on the conquered rampart he was struck on the chest by a bullet, and only lived long enough to know that Coron had fallen into the hands of the league.

After the capture of old and new Navarino, siege was laid to Napoli di Romana, the chief town in the Morea. This last stronghold of the Moslem was defended with the utmost tenacity. Three separate times did they strive to effect its relief from without, but each time they were routed with great slaughter beneath its walls. At the end of a month, the town despairing of relief, and harassed by the incessant attacks of the besiegers, surrendered unconditionally, and thus the whole of the Morea fell into the power of the allies. In 1687 the Dalmatian coast became the scene of war, and Castel Nuovo, a fortified town at the entrance of the gulf of Cattaro, was carried in triumph. This success dislodged the Turks from the Adriatic, and restored the command of its commerce to the Venetians. It was principally effected by the instrumentality of the grand-prior of Hungary, count Heberstein, who was a general in the imperial service, and commander of the Maltese contingent to the allied force. Letters from the Pope and the doge of Venice speak in the highest terms of the services of the knights in the strenua Castrinovi expugnatio, and the doge expressly specifies “the general of the knights of Malta, count Heberstein,” as the principal agent in the victory.

In the early part of 1689, James II. of England, then a fugitive in France, wrote the following letter to the Grand- Master, relating to his illegitimate son, Henry Fits James Stuart, whose mother was Arabella Churchill, sister to the duke of Marlborough.

“To my cousin the Grand-Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem:

“My cousin. We are so strongly persuaded of your zeal for the Catholic religion that we do not doubt you will readily