Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/722

686 as I am told, had the Order not been restored, he is the legitimate sovereign of the island. Never less than 500 men have been landed from the squadron, which although, with the volunteers, not sufficient to commence a siege, have yet kept posts and batteries not more than 400 yards from the works. His Sicilian Majesty, at the united request of the whole island, named Captain Ball as their chief director, and he will hold it until your Majesty, as Grand-Master, appoints a person to the office. Now the French are nearly expelled from Italy by the valour and skill of your generals and army, all my thoughts are turned towards placing the Grand-Master and the Order of Malta in security in La Valetta, for which purpose I have just been at Minorca and arranged with the English general a force of 2,500 British troops, cannons, bombs, etc., for the siege. I have written to your Majesty’s admiral, and his Sicilian Majesty joins cordially in the good work of endeavouring to drive the French from Malta. The laborious task of keeping the Maltese quiet in Malta, through difficulties which your Majesty will perfectly understand, has been principally brought about b the goodness of her Majesty the queen of Naples, who at one moment of distress sent £7,000 belonging absolutely to herself and children, by the exertion of Lady Hamilton, the wife of Sir William Hamilton, my gracious sovereign’s minister to the court of the Two Sicilies, whom your Majesty knows personally, and by the bravery and conciliatory manners of Captain Ball. If your Majesty honours these two persons with the decoration of the Order, I can answer none ever more deserved the cross, and it will be grateful to the feelings of your Majesty’s most faithful and devoted servant, .”

In his reply to this letter the emperor says, “C’est avec plaisir que j’accorde a votre demande la croix de Commandeur au Capitaine Ball, et celle de Chevalier à Lady Hamilton que vous leur remettrez accompagnées des lettres de ma part.”

That Captain Ball was much gratified with his decoration is evident by the following extract from a letter he wrote to Lady Hamilton:—“I most sincerely congratulate your ladyship on