History of The Reign of Philip The Second King of Spain History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain Part 84

42.--Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VI. cap. 24.

[1311] In Vertot's account of this affair, much is said of a nondescript outwork, termed a _cavalier_,--conveying a different idea from what is understood by that word in modern fortifications. It stood without the walls, and was connected with the ravelin by a bridge, the possession of which was hotly contested by the combatants. Balbi, the Spanish soldier, so often quoted,--one of the actors in the siege, though stationed at the fort of St. Michael,--speaks of the fight as being carried on in the ditch. His account has the merit of being at once the briefest and the most intelligible.

[1312] Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 40, 41.--Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. II. pp. 203-205.--Calderon, Gloriosa Defensa de Malta, p. 48 et seq.--Segrado, Monarcas Othomanos, p. 245.--Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VI. cap. 24.--Herrera, Historia General, lib. XII. cap. 4.

[1313] Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 39

[1314] Ibid., fol. 39-42.--Calderon, Gloriosa Defensa de Malta, p.

46.--De Thou, Hist. Universelle, tom. V. p. 58.--Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. II. p. 204.--Miniana, Hist. de Espana, p. 350.

[1315] For the preceding pages, setting forth the emba.s.sies to La Valette, and exhibiting in such bold relief the character of the grand-master, I have been chiefly indebted to Vertot (Knights of Malta, vol. I. pp. 309-312). The same story is told, more concisely, by Calderon, Gloriosa Defensa de Malta, pp. 60-67; Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VI. cap. 25; De Thou, Hist. Universelle, tom. V. p. 61; Campana, Filippo Secondo, par. II. p. 159; Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 44, 45.

[1316] The remains of Medran were brought over to Il Borgo, where La Valette, from respect to his memory, caused them to be laid among those of the Grand Crosses.--"El gran Maestre lo mando enterrar era una sepultura, adonde se entierran los cavalleros de la gran Cruz, porque esta era la mayor honra, que en tal tiempo le podia hazer, y el muy bien la merecia." Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 51.

[1317] The invention of this missile Vertot claims for La Valette.

(Knights of Malta, vol. II. p. 215.) Balbi refers it to a brother of the Order, named Ramon Fortunii. (Verdadera Relacion, p. 48.)

[1318] The first shot was not so successful, killing eight of their own side!--"Mas el artillero, o fuesse la prissa, o fuesse la turbacion que en semejantes casos suele sobre venir en los hombres el se tuvo mas a mano drecha, que no deviera, pues de aquel tiro mato ocho de los nuestros que defendian aquella posta." Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol.

50.

[1319] Ibid., fol. 49-51.--Calderon, Gloriosa Defensa de Malta, p. 72 et seq.--Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. II. pp. 214-216.--Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VI. cap. 25.--Sagredo, Monarcas Othomanos, p.

245.--Herrera, Historia General, lib. XII. cap. 6

[1320] "En este a.s.salto y en todos me han dicho cavalleros, que pelearo no solamente ellos, y los soldados, mas que los forcados, bonas vollas, y Malteses murieron con tanto animo, como qualquiera otra persona de mayor estima." Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 51.

[1321] "Que si su senoria Ill.u.s.trissima tenia otra persona, para tal cargo mejor, [~q] la embia.s.se, quel lo obedeceria como a tal, mas quel queria quedar en sant Ermo, como privado cavallero, y por sa religion sacrificar su cuerpo." Ibid., fol 44.

[1322] "La escuridad de la noche, fue luego muy clara, por la grade catidad de los fuegos artificiales, que de ambas partes se arojavan, y de tal manera que los que estavamos en san Miguel, veyamos muy claramente sant Ermo, y los artilleros de sant Angel y de otras partes apuntavan, a la lumbre de los fuegos enemigos." Ibid., fol 48.

[1323] Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 53.

[1324] Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. II. p. 214.

[1325] Ibid., pp. 216, 217.--Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol.

54.--Calderon, Gloriosa Defensa de Malta, p. 80 et seq.--Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VI. cap. 25.

[1326] "Ellos como aquellos [~q] la manana navia de ser su postrer dia en este mudo, unos con otros se confessavan, y rogavan a nuestro senor que por su infinita misericordia, la tuviesse de sus animas, pues le costaron su preciossissima sangre para redemirlas." Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 54.

See also Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. II. pp. 217, 218;--Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VI. cap. 25.

[1327] Vertot, whose appet.i.te for the marvellous sometimes carries him into the miraculous, gives us to understand that not one of the garrison survived the storming of St. Elmo. (Knights of Malta, vol. II. p. 219.) If that were so, one would like to know how the historian got his knowledge of what was doing in the fortress the day and night previous to the a.s.sault. The details quoted above from Balbi account for this knowledge, and carry with them an air of probability. (Verdadera Relacion, fol. 55.)

[1328] "Luego que entraron los Turcos en sant Ermo, abatieron el estadarte de san Juan, y en su lugar plantaron una vandera del gran Turco, y en todo aquel dia no hizieron otra cosa, que plantar vaderas, y vanderillas por la muralla, segun su costumbre." Ibid., fol. 55.

See also, for the storming of St. Elmo, Calderon, Gloriosa Defensa de Malta, pp. 81-84; Miniana, Hist. de Espana, p. 351; Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VI. cap. 25; Campana, Filippo Secondo, par. II. p. 159; Sagredo, Monarcas Othomanos, p. 245; Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. II.

p. 219 et seq.

[1329] "A todos nos pesava en el anima porque aquellas eran fiestas que solian hazer los cavalleros en tal dia, para honor deste su santo avogado." Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 55.

[1330] Ibid., fol. 58.--Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. II. p. 220.

[1331] Balbi has given a catalogue of the knights who fell in the siege, with the names of the countries to which they respectively belonged.

Verdadera Relacion, fol. 56.

[1332] Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. II. p. 219.

No name of the sixteenth century appears more frequently in the ballad poetry of Spain than that of Dragut. The "_Romancero General_" contains many _romances_, some of them of great beauty, reciting the lament of the poor captive chained to the galley of the dread rover, or celebrating his naval encounters with the chivalry of Malta,--"_las velas de la religion,_" as the squadrons of the order were called.

[1333] Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 33.

[1334] The two princ.i.p.al authorities on whom I have relied for the siege of Malta are Balbi and Vertot. The former was a soldier, who served through the siege, his account of which, now not easily met with, was printed shortly afterwards, and in less than three years went into a second edition,--being that used in the present work. As Balbi was both an eye-witness and an actor, on a theatre so limited that nothing could be well hidden from view, and as he wrote while events were fresh in his memory, his testimony is of the highest value. It loses nothing by the temperate, home-bred style in which the book is written, like that of a man anxious only to tell the truth, and not to magnify the cause or the party to which he is attached. In this the honest soldier forms a contrast to his more accomplished rival, the Abbe de Vertot.

This eminent writer was invited to compose the history of the order, and its archives were placed by the knights at his disposal for this purpose. He accepted the task; and in performing it he has sounded the note of panegyric with as hearty a good will as if he had been a knight hospitaller himself. This somewhat detracts from the value of a work which must be admitted to rest, in respect to materials, on the soundest historical basis. The abbe's turn for the romantic has probably aided, instead of hurting him, with the generality of readers. His clear and sometimes eloquent style, the interest of his story, and the dramatic skill with which he brings before the eye the peculiar traits of his actors, redeem, to some extent, the prolixity of his narrative, and have combined, not merely to commend the book to popular favor, but to make it the standard work on the subject.

[1335] By another ordinance, La Valette caused all the dogs in La Sangle and Il Borgo to be killed, because they disturbed the garrisons by night, and ate their provisions by day. Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol.

29.

[1336] Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. III. p. 2.

[1337] Ibid., p. 4.--Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 64.--Calderon, Gloriosa Defensa de Malta, p. 94.--Sagredo, Monarcas Othomanos, p. 296.

[1338] Calderon, Gloriosa Defensa de Malta, p. 91.--Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. III. p. 3.--De Thou, Histoire Universelle, tom. V. p.

67.--Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VI. cap. 26.--Sagredo, Monarcas Othomanos, p. 246

[1339] Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 61, 62, 68.--Calderon, Gloriosa Defensa de Malta, pp. 95-100.--Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. III. pp.

4-7.--Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VI. cap. 26.--Herrera, Historia General, lib. XII. cap. 7.

[1340] "No avia hombre que no truxesse aljuba, el que menos de grana, muchos de tela de oro, y de plata, y damasco carmesi, y muy buenas escopetas de fez, cimitaras de Alexandria, y de Damasco, arcos muy finos, y muy ricos turbantes." Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 70.

[1341] "Cargadas de gente muy luzida, vista por cierto muy linda, sino fuera tan peligrosa." Ibid., ubi supra.

[1342] "Nuestro predicador fray Ruberto, el qual en todo el a.s.salto yva por todas las postas con un crucifixo en la una mano, y la espada en la otra: animandonos a bien morir, y pelear por la fe de Iesu Christo: y fue herido este dia su paternidad." Ibid., fol. 73.

[1343] "Echo nueve barcas delas mayores a fondo que no se salvo ninguno, y auria en estas barcas ochocientos Turcos." Ibid., fol. 72.

[1344] This seems to have been Balbi's opinion.--"En conclusion, la casa mata del comendador Guiral fue este dia a juyzio de todos la salvacion de la Isla, porque si las barcas ya dichas echavan su gete en tierra, no les pudieramos resistir en ninguna manera." Ibid., fol. 73.

[1345] Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. III. p. 13.

[1346] Compare Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. III. p. 13, and Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 73.--The latter chronicler, for a wonder, raises the sum total of the killed to a somewhat higher figure than the abbe,--calling it full four thousand.

[1347] The particulars of the a.s.saults on St. Michael and the Spur are given by Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 61-74; and with more or less inaccuracy by Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. III. pp. 8-13; Calderon, Gloriosa Defensa de Malta, pp. 110-116; De Thou, Histoire Universelle, tom. V. pp. 72-74; Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. V. cap. 26; Herrera, Historia General, lib. XII. cap. 7; Sagredo, Monarcas Othomanos, p. 246; Campana, Vita di Filippo Secondo, tom. II. p. 160.

[1348] Cruel indeed, according to the report of Balbi, who tells us that the Christians cut off the ears of the more refractory, and even put some of them to death,--_pour encourager les autres_.--"Han muerto en esta jornada al trabajo mas de quinientos esclavos; mas los pobres llegaron atal de puros cansados y acabados del trabajo continuo, que no podian estar en pie, y se dexavan cortar las orejas y matar por no poder trabajar mas." Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 66.

[1349] Ibid., fol. 67, 77.--Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. III. p.

18.--Campana, Vita di Filippo Secondo, tom. II. p. 160.

[1350] "En fin era in todo diligente, vigilante y animoso, y jamas se conoscio en su valeroso semblante ninguna senal de temor, antes con su presencia dava esfuerco y animo a sus cavalleros y soldados." Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 77.