fame officer, for the whole fiege. One of J.C 1522. Heg. 928, these commanders fecretly warned the grand & 929. mafter, that a fervant of Damaral's, called Blafe Dies, came very often to his poft; that, for a long time, he paid no attention to him, but having at length remarked, that this man appeared there every day at the fame hours, he had examined him nearer, and thought he was fure that Dies threw intelligence into the enemy's camp by means of arrows; and that the grand chancellor came there often with his fervant. L'ifle Adam paid attention to this information. Dies, carefully watched, was caught going to throw off one of these notes, which was taken in his hands. The wretch, interrogated, contradicted himself feveral times; on being put to the rack, he faid, before he suffered it, that the intelligence which he fent to the enemy was dictated to him by Damaral, and that he threw it into the enemy's camp by order of his master. The chancellor was arrested immediately and conducted to the tower of St. Nicholas. Two grand croffes were fent to interrogate him. Damaral defended himself with haughtiness. He replied to thefe commiffioners, that he had not ferved the Order forty years to betray it in an advanced age; that the favors of the Turks could not compensate for the riches, dignities, and reputation he enjoyed; and that he opposed to his calumniators, the feries of a long life without reproach. Rr 2 & 929. J.C. 1522. reproach. When they confronted him with his J.C.1522 Heg. 928, accufer, he said, that that man accused him, only through revenge for having had him feverely chastised several times, and perhaps with the hope of faving his life; that, if he, Damaral, had wished to betray, he had no occafion for the affiftance of that wretch, as his quality of inspector of the defence gave him the right of vifiting the pofts at all hours, and to remain there as long as he should think proper, without ever being fufpected. 7 A prieft, chaplain to the Order, came and depofed, that, having advanced on a bastion one day, which he mentioned, he faw Damara with this fervant, both looking earnestly on the enemy's camp; that being both returned, he perceived in Dies's hands, a crofs bow, with its bolt or quarrel, to which a paper was fastened; that the chancellor haughtily demanded of him with an angry tone, what he was feeking; upon which he retired immediately, feeing his prefence was difagreeable. On this depofition it was refolved that Damaral should be put to the rack. Before it was commenced, the grand croffes earneftly preffed him to put himfelf in a fituation to experience the forgiveness of God, of the grand mafter, and of all the Order, by a fincere acknowledgment of his crime. The chancellor answered with firmness, that nothing fhould ever make him calumniate himself, that he would ́ra ther Heg. 928 & 929. ther fuffer all the torments imaginable, than ren- J.C. 1522 der himself contemptible in the eyes of the world and his own. In the horrors of the torture, he acknowledged folely, that at the time of the election of L'ifle Adam, knowing that the Turks had for a long time menaced the island, he had faid to two knights, that that would be the laft grand master of Rhodes; that his chagrin at not having carried it against his competitor, and his manner of thinking of L'ifle Adam, whom he had always confidered as a man of little ability, had drawn thefe indifcreet expreffions from him. As to the reft, gentlemen, continued he, looking at his judges, this fault does not merit that you should deliver one of the first perfonages of your Order to the executioner. Damaral preferved this firmness to the laft moment. His judges however thought they faw fufficient to condemnin him. The grand chancellor was therefore publicly ftripped of the marks of his dignity, and the habit of his Order, after which he was delivered to the fecular judges, who caufed him to be carried in a chair, the next day, to the great fquare, where his fervant was hanged before his eyes, and himself beheaded, always protesting his innocence and the error of his judges. Meanwhile the Turks battered in breach fafter than ever. The remaining knights, rather hid den and buried than fortified in the ruins of their ramparts, fays Vertot, conftantly flattered them J.C.1522. felves with fuccours from the Chriftian princes, Heg. 928, &929 without which they could not long hold out. But Charles V. and Francis I. had affairs more interesting for them than the fiege of Rhodes. All the other Chriftian princes, without excepting the new pope Adrian VI. were engaged in the quarrel of these two illuftrious rivals, and abandoned this monaftery of warriors to the care of Providence and the valour of its knights. Three convoys, one from Provence, another from Spain, and a third from England, had been wrecked in diftant places or taken by the Turks. The janiffaries, become mafters of the out-works of the place, had obliged the grand mafter to have the churches and buildings in the fuburbs pulled down, in order to deprive the enemy of them. The fire from the befiegers and the befieged was fo close, that there was no intermiffion either by day or night. The Turks were continually re- lieving one another, in order to oblige the few foldiers who were yet in the place, to remain always on duty. Notwithstanding thefe extremities, L'ifle Adam would not hear of a capitulation. He recollected always, that forty years before, the perfeverance of Aubuffon had tired the valour of the janiffaries: not being lefs valiant nor lefs prudent, he flattered himself, though lefs feconded, with being equally fortunate. Achmet bafhaw faw, that, notwithstanding the ground which his troops gained in the place, and Heg. 928, fpite of the breaches in the new works, thefe lions J.C.1522 could not be forced in their fort. He caufed & 929. honorable capitulations to be proposed to them several times; the grand mafter, having always rejected them, threatened, at last, to fire on those who were charged with these proposals; but the Rhodians faw with the greatest grief that their town would foon be facked. Intelligence was continually throwing into the place, importing, that the Rhodians might, if they would, fave their poffeffions, their fortunes, and the honor of their wives; that the grand feignior offered them treaties, but that the knights, their real enemies, were refolved to see them perish. Thefe murmurs encreafed more and more against the obftinacy of L'ifle Adam. At length, the Greek and the Latin archbishop, for there was one for each archbishops communion at Rhodes, went and told the grand mafter, that God was determined to take the gerly reisland from the Order, fince he deprived them of have the the means to defend it; that religion did not given up. permit him to facrifice fo many people to vain glory; that humanity was not lefs a duty of the knights of St. John, than valour; that, befides, it was to be feared that the Rhodians, grown defperate, would become his enemies, and would rather march on the bloody bodies of the few knights who remained at Rhodes, to open their gates and accept the capitulation offered, than expose themselves to thefe horrors, which the notes The two of Rhodes, and all the people, ea quest to ifland |