J.C.1522. a drum. He caufed the mine to be immediately Heg. 928, &929. counterworked, drove out the labourers with grenades, or elfe threw in barrels of powder. all inflamed, which ftifled and burnt thefe wretches in the fubterraneous paffages which they had themselves digged. The artillery of the knights of Rhodes, fuperior to that of the Turks, difmounted almost always the batteries of the befiegers, fo that the latter durft no longer fire but by night. They foon began to want powder in the town. The grand mafter employed all the mills and horfes in the place, to grind a fufficient quantity of falt petre, but the cannon and small arms used much more than the mills could furnish. The defence of the place foon fuffered from this fcarcity; the Rhodians perceived alfo, that the blood which they fpilt in the fallies was too precious, confidering the fmallness of their number, fince the Turks fought more than twenty against one. They contented themselves with defending the five bastions which Solyman caused to be attacked at the fame time at the five extremities of the town, and conftructing new works behind thofe on which the cannon made an impreffion. Two mines, which fucceeded, gave the Turks hopes of foon mounting to the affault, but the walls beaten down difcovered new ones to their eyes. For two months had they battered in breach, and the Turkish generals had not yet thought of forming the place. Solyman, Heg. 928 poses his account of fuccefs of in ftorm Solyman, full of impatience and shame, af- J.C.1522. fembled his council to reproach the bafhaws with & 929 fix thoufand Christians' opposing all the forces The grand of the Ottoman empire. The grand vizier re- feignior deplied, that fufficient advantage had not been vizier on taken of their number; that oppofing artillery to the bad artillery, and mines to mines, as had been done his troops fo far, was renouncing voluntarily their fupe ing the riority; that the janiffaries fhould be led to the place. affault, and all the bastions attacked at once. This propofal was feized with avidity. The next morning, at break of day, the batteries fired brisker than ever, in order to enlarge the breaches. The five principal pofts, called France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and England, on account of their being each intrusted to knights of these nations, were more defended by the valour of the troops, than by the fortifications, already much impaired. The fultan afcended a small hill, from whence he could fee with a glance of the eye all the attacks that his bafhaws were about to make. The janiffaries were already advancing, ladder in hand, when they heard acclamations of joy in the place, caufed by the arrival of two galleys from Sicily, which brought two hundred foldiers, with provifions and ammunition. Though this fuccour was not very important, the good fortune which it had had to enter a port invested by more than two hundred fail, spite of the efforts of the captain bafhaw and the fire from Heg. 928, J.C.1522.from all the fleet, was a good omen for the & 929. knights. The defence of the five bastions demonftrated what valour can do against ferocity and number. L'ifle Adam went to the English bastion, which was the weakest, and confequently most in need of attention, When the janiffaries had reached the ditches, the knights lavished the fire which they had 'till then been fparing of, and made a terrible flaughter. The Turks reached feveral times the top of the walls, and were as often thrown down. All thofe, who put foot on the platform of the bastions, met certain death: at length, after a combat of more than fix hours, during which time all the attacks were conftantly repelled, Solyman, fuming with rage, ordered the retreat to be founded, in order that it might appear, at least, that his troops had fubmitted only to his orders. The Turks left more than twenty thousand men around the ramparts, which they had not been able to force. As foon as he was returned to the camp, Solyman ordered, that the grand vizier Mustapha, his favorite and brother-in-law, fhould be fastened to a ftake in prefence of all the army, as a butt to shoot arrows at. This young monarch made his vizier refponsible for the bad fuccefs of the fiege, and particularly for the last affault, which the grand vizier had recommended. This cruel order was going to be executed; Mustapha was already fastened to the ftake, when Peri bafhaw, his friend, who had educated Heg. 928, educated the emperor, ordered the execution to J.C.1522. be fufpended, and, feconded by all the bafhaws & 929. of the bench, and almost all the chiefs of the troops, he ran to the emperor's tent to folicit a pardon for the grand vizier, who, they all maintained, was not culpable. Solyman, irritated, condemned Peri bafhaw to perifh the fame inftant, with him whom he defended with fo much conftancy; but all the other bashaws having proftrated themselves at the fame time before him, the emperor read in all their eyes how much horror this order infpired. Having collected himself, he pardoned Kirlou and Peri, on condition that the former never appeared again in his prefence. A fangiacate was given him in Egypt, in order to fend him fo far off that he might never return. There remained to punish the lieutenant or admiral of the fleet, who had let the two Neapolitan galleys enter; the fultan ordered that he fhould be publicly depofed, and whipped like a flave on board the admiral galley. Achmet bafhaw, the able engineer that Solyman had brought with him, was made grand vizier, and intrufted with the command of the army. Trial of chancellor Damaral It is faid, that, after this bad fuccefs, the Turkish emperor would have raised the fiege, if he the grand had not been perfuaded by letters from the town, thrown into the camp with arrows, to continue it. They affured Solyman, that the knights, reduced to the laft extremity, could not defend 1.C. 1522. the place much longer; that they wanted ammu Heg. 928, &929. nition, and had lost a great many foldiers. This intelligence raised the fultan's fpirits. The artillery again battered in breach, and the Turks prepared to recommence the affaults. A Jewish phyfician was convicted of having committed this treafon: he was caught going to fhoot off one of these arrows which carried advice; he acknowledged, in the torments of the rack, that he had conftantly been the fpy of the Turks, and had even been paid by the emperors Selim and Bajazet II. A traitor of much greater confequence was foon thought to be discovered. Damaral, the grand chancellor, though intrufted during the fiege with the inspection of the pofts, had always been fufpected by the friends of the grand mafter, and by the grand mafter himself. An old grudge which he was reproached with bearing L'ifle Adam, before that knight was invested with the fovereign dignity; the pretenfions of Damaral to the grand-maftership, and his too visible chagrin at not having fucceeded therein; his oppofition in the council to the provisioning of Rhodes when war was not yet declared; the fcarcity of gun-powder, which happened only because the chancellor, charged with that infpection, had affured the council that the magazines were much fuller than they really were; all this had raised suspicions. The reader must remember that the different pofts were intrusted to the fame |