THE SIEGE OF MALTA
The siege of Malta by the Turks; The capture of the
fortress of St. Elmo; The death of Dragut-Reis
There was an entire disregard of human life among the leaders of the
Ottoman Turks at this time which is almost incredible; to attain their
end in war they sacrificed thousands upon thousands of men with an
absolutely callous indifference. In no chapter of the bloodstained
history of their Empire was this trait more in evidence than it was
at the siege of Malta. There was, however, a reason for this, which
developed itself more and more as the ceaseless assaults on the
positions of the Knights went on. From a military point of view, all
the operations which took place were those of the siege of a fortress;
as when at length St. Elmo fell the Turks turned their attention to
the fortress of Il Borgo. The time-honoured method of the attack on
a fortress, of approaching it by sap and mine, was here almost an
impossibility, as the island of Malta is composed of solid rock through
which it was practically impossible to drive trenches. It is true that
the rock is of an exceptionally soft nature, easily cut through with
proper tools; but you cannot cut through rock, no matter how soft
it may be, when your operations are opposed at every step by a brave
and vigilant enemy. Mustafa and the council of war had, as we have
said, decided to begin operations by the siege of the fortress of St.
Elmo. This place had been built from the designs of the Prior of Capua,
an officer of the Order, and was situated at the extreme end of the
promontory of Mount Sceberass, which juts out between the Great Port
and the harbour of Marsa Muzetto. The fort was in a commanding position
and dominated the entrance to the two principal harbours in the island.
It was admirably adapted for repulsing an attack from the sea; but,
owing to the proximity of other points of land upon which artillery
could be mounted, was easily capable of attack by such an enemy as that
by which it was now assailed.
The principal preoccupation of the militant Prior of Capua had been to
make it formidable on the side facing the sea; perhaps the designer
had never contemplated the possibility that the day might dawn when
it would be attacked from the landward side! However this may have
been, Mustafa decided that it could and should be carried on this, its
weakest face, and made his preparations accordingly.
As far as it was possible to open trenches this was done, at the most
prodigal expenditure of the lives of the pioneers. Where the rock
proved absolutely impossible of manipulation redoubts were constructed
of massive beams on which thick planks were bolted, the whole covered
with wet earth which had to be collected with incredible toil from the
country at the back. Disembarking their siege-guns, and utilising
the cattle of the islanders for transporting them, the great cannon
of the Turks were dragged up the slopes of the Mount and got into
position; and by the 24th of May fire was opened on St. Elmo with ten
guns which threw balls weighing eighty pounds. Besides these there were
two culverins which threw balls of sixty pounds, and a huge basilisk,
the projectile from which weighed no less than one hundred and sixty
pounds. A terrible fire was opened against the walls of the fort, and
so destructive did it immediately become that the Bailli of Negropont,
the Knight in command, very soon became aware that his trust must be in
the stout hearts and strong arms of his garrison; as the walls by which
they were surrounded were hourly crumbling into nothingness.
Regarding the matter from this point of view, he sent at once to the
Grand Master by the Chevalier La Cerda demanding succour; this officer,
“rendered eloquent by fear,” exaggerated the peril to which the fort
was exposed and stated that it could not possibly hold out for more
than another eight days.
“What losses have you had?” demanded the Grand Master.
“Sire,” replied La Cerda, “the fort may be compared to a sick man in
his extremity, in the last stage of weakness, unable to sustain himself
except by perpetual cordials and remedies.”
“Then I myself will be your physician,” said the Grand Master with
contempt, “and I will bring others with me. If that cannot cure you of
fear it will, at all events, prevent the infidels from seizing upon the
fort.”
There was no real hope in the mind of La Valette that St. Elmo could
be saved from the enemy. The place was too weak, and none knew this
fact better than the man to whom all the defences of the island were
as familiar as the hilt of his own good sword; but, though he secretly
deplored the necessity, he felt that if Malta were to be preserved it
could only be done by delaying until succour should come from outside;
every day, nay, every hour, was of importance, and he was prepared to
sacrifice St. Elmo and the lives of its entire garrison to attain his
end. He did not, however—to continue the simile of La Cerda—prescribe
for others a medicine which he himself was not prepared to take, and
when he said that he would go to the fort of St. Elmo it was no mere
figure of speech. The council of the Knights, however, would not hear
of the Grand Master thus sacrificing himself; well did these noble
gentlemen know that there was none among them like unto him, that his
name and his influence were worth an army in themselves. The outcry was
so loud that La Valette had to yield; which he did the more readily
when he saw the splendid emulation among his brethren to cross over
to the beleaguered and crumbling fortress which promised nothing but
the grave to those who should pass within the circle of fire by which
it was now surrounded. To the Chevaliers Gonzales de Medran and de la
Motte was conceded the proud privilege for which all the Knights were
clamouring; and, accompanied by the tears and the prayers of their
brethren, they passed to that place where, if death were certain,
honour at least was immortal. Truly the heart warms somewhat to the
days of chivalry when one reads of what was done at the siege of
Malta. The motto of _Noblesse oblige_ was no dead letter in the sixteenth
century. By this time the whole of Europe was awake to the peril
of the Order, and, galloping for dear life across Europe, came the
Knights, anxious and willing to share in the danger. For most of these
gentlemen Sicily was the goal at which they aimed; arrived there they
flung themselves into any boat or shallop which they could hire, and,
heedless of the risk of capture by the Turkish fleet, totally ignorant
of what was passing in Malta save that the infidel was at her gates,
they passed across the channel which separates the two islands and
joined their fellows at Il Borgo.
Greatly heartened by the reinforcements brought to them by de Medran
and de la Motte, the garrison of St. Elmo made a sortie, surprised the
Turks in their entrenchments, and, under cover of the guns of the fort,
succeeded in destroying nearly all the works which the enemy had so
painfully built up. The Turks, however, when they had recovered from
the surprise, were in such large numbers as to be able to rally and
drive the Christians from the vantage points which they had gained;
and to oblige them once again to retire into the fort. From this time
onward there was never a day in which the garrison and the besiegers
were not hand to hand in the trenches.
Just after the first reinforcements had been thrown into St. Elmo there
arrived on the scene Ali, the Lieutenant of Dragut. This corsair came
from Alexandria with six galleys, on board of which were nine hundred
men, reinforcements for the Turkish army. A few days after this the
famous Dragut himself appeared, with thirteen galleys and two galleots,
on board of which were sixteen hundred men.
What must not have been the despairing feelings with which the
defenders viewed the arrival of this augmentation to the swarming
ranks of their foes! From afar they noted the vessels and knew, while
Philip of Spain and Garzia de Toledo still procrastinated, that now
was added to the number of their enemies the most famous captain who
served the autocrat of the Eastern world. Very naturally the arrival
of Dragut was hailed with acclamation by the Turks: every gun in that
vast armada spoke in salute, every trumpet blared, every drum rolled
to welcome the man honoured of the Padishah, notorious throughout the
whole world of Europe for his implacable enmity to the Knights. The
first preoccupation of the corsair was to inform himself as to the
conduct of the operations. These, when disclosed to him, by no means
met with his approval. This real leader immediately made it clear to
Piali and Mustafa that which they should have done. In the first place
they should have made themselves masters of the castle of Gozo, and
then captured the Città Notabile. By doing this the supplies to the
town and fortress of Il Borgo would have been cut off: besides—and
more important than aught else—they would in this manner have closed
the road to those succours expected by the Christians. Piali, who had
desired from the first to undertake nothing without the advice of
Dragut, now said that the siege of St. Elmo was not so far advanced
after all, and, if the Basha of Tripoli should so direct, it could
be raised at once. To this, however, Dragut would by no means consent.
“That would have been well enough,” he said, “if the affair had not
gone so far; but, after the opening of the trenches and several days
of attack, it is not possible to raise the siege without sullying the
honour of the Sultan and discouraging the valour of the soldiers.”
It cannot be denied that, in acting as he did, the corsair displayed
a self-restraint and a loyalty to the Sultan hardly to be expected in
the circumstances. The jealousy which so often obtains among rival
commanders was singularly in evidence in the forces of the Padishah:
Dragut had good cause to be dissatisfied with the dispositions which
had been made, and yet, for the reasons which we have quoted, he
allowed them to proceed. Before the Basha had left Tripoli he had been
engaged in communications with Muley Hamid, the then King of Tunis, who
was feudatory of Spain. Anxious as was the corsair to aid in attacking
his implacable enemies, the Knights, he could not afford to leave his
own flank unguarded in Africa. He succeeded, however, in arriving at an
understanding with the King of Tunis, and, further than this, he had
assured himself, by means of his spies, that the succours which were
to be sent from Sicily by the Spanish King could not possibly arrive
for another two months. It was the negotiations which he was obliged to
undertake with Muley Hamid which had caused his late arrival. As far
as it is possible to judge, it was this circumstance, which (added
to their own incomparable valour) turned the scale in favour of the
Knights.
Among all those brave men at Malta, on both sides, in this flaming
month of June 1565, there were none who excelled the Basha of Tripoli.
“No one had ever seen a more intrepid general officer,” says de Vertot.
“He passed entire days in the trenches and at the batteries. Among his
different talents none understood better than did he the direction
and conduct of artillery, which was his special _métier_. By his orders
on June 1st a second battery was constructed closer to the fort and
parallel to the one already in existence, in order that an absolutely
continuous fire might be maintained. He mounted four guns on the
opposite side of Marsa Muzetto Harbour on a projecting point of land,
from which a further enfilading fire smote the doomed fortress on the
flank: this point has been known ever since as the Point Dragut.”
A ravelin in advance of the fortress on the land side was scourged
without ceasing by the arquebus fire of the Janissaries. One evening,
as the return fire had slackened and all seemed quiet within this work,
some Turkish engineers stole forth from the trenches to reconnoitre.
Approaching the cavalier, all was still as death; the bold sappers
pushed on as far as the ditch by which the work was surrounded,
creeping on hands and knees. They let themselves down noiselessly into
the ditch, and then, one standing on the shoulders of another, peeped
in upon their Christian foes. Whether or no the sentry had been slain
by a stray shot, or whether he too slept, can never be known; but
the cavalier was unguarded; all within it slept the sleep of men
utterly exhausted. The sappers crept back to their trenches, fetched
scaling-ladders, swept like a flood over the rim of the cavalier, and
put to death every man whom they found. Profiting by their advantage,
the Turks dashed over the bridge connecting the cavalier with the fort;
here, however, they were met by Sergeant-Major Guerare and a handful
of soldiers aroused by him. These men were instantly succoured by the
Chevaliers de Vercoyran and de Medran, who were immediately followed
by the Bailli of Negropont and several other Knights. An obstinate
hand-to-hand combat now ensued; fresh Turks came up to the attack, but
were mown down in swathes by an enfilading fire from two cannons which
the defenders of the fort managed to bring to bear upon them. More
pioneers arrived from the trenches, carrying planks and sacks filled
with wool. These men tried to effect a permanent lodgment, but the fire
was too hot on the Christian side, and men fell in hundreds. Nothing
daunted, the Turks reared their scaling-ladders against the sides of
the fortress itself, and attempted to scale the walls; but for this
the ladders were too short, and the assailants were hurled back into
the ditch. This attack, in which the Turkish arms were rewarded by the
capture of the ravelin behind the cavalier, is said to have cost them
the lives of three thousand men. It lasted from daybreak until midday.
On the side of the Christians twenty Knights and one hundred soldiers
were slain; but worst of all, from their point of view, the ravelin
remained in the hands of their enemies. The chevalier Abel de
Bridiers de la Gardampe having received a ball through his body, some
of his comrades ran to place him under cover. “Count me no longer among
the living,” said the Knight. “You will be better employed in defending
the rest of our brethren.” He then, unassisted, dragged himself to the
foot of the altar in the chapel, where his dead body was discovered
when all was over.
So far communication remained established between St. Elmo and
their comrades in Il Borgo on the opposite side of the harbour;
in consequence the wounded were removed and their places taken by
one hundred fresh men under the Chevalier Vagnon. To the Bailli of
Negropont and the Commandeur Broglio, La Valette sent a message to
return to Il Borgo. These gallant and aged veterans, both of whom
were wounded, whose faces were scorched by the sun and blackened with
powder, whose bodies were well-nigh worn out with perpetual vigil and
hand-to-hand fighting, refused stoutly to quit their post, which now
was naught but a dreadful shambles filled with corpses mangled out of
recognition and heads and limbs which had been torn and hacked from
their bodies.
Dragut now proposed to erect batteries on the same side of the Great
Port as that on which Il Borgo was situated; on the point now known as
Ricasoli, but which was then and for centuries afterwards known as the
Punta Delle Forche (or Point of the Gallows, because it was here that
all pirates was executed; and their bodies, swinging in chains, were
the first objects that met the eye on entering the Great Port). In this
he was overruled by Piali, who declared that he had not sufficient
men to spare, and the Knights of II Borgo would soon render the battery
untenable even if they should succeed in erecting it, which the Turkish
admiral now considered extremely doubtful. The siege of St. Elmo, which
Mustafa had said would last at the outside for five or six days, had
now been in progress for four weeks; and, although the fort was in a
ruinous condition, nothing seemed capable of daunting those invincible
warriors by which it was held.
The position in St. Elmo now was that the Turks still held on to the
ravelin which they had captured; this they had built up to such a
height that they could look over the parapet of the fortress and shoot
down with arquebus fire any one whom they could see. Meanwhile the
Turkish sappers delved night and day in their endeavour to undermine
the parapet, which, if blown up, would give them free access to the
interior of the fort; while another party, by use of the yards of
galleys and huge planks of wood, busied themselves in constructing a
bridge to connect the ravelin with the parapet. Lamirande, one of the
most active of the defenders of the fort, viewed these preparations
without undue alarm, as he was aware that, by the nature of the
ground, it would be almost impossible to excavate sufficiently under
the parapet to place an effective mine. As, however, the sapping was
causing the parapet to incline outwards, and it was possible that
it might almost at any moment fall over into the ditch, he caused a
second parapet to be erected inside the first and artillery to be
mounted thereon. Having done this he caused a false sortie to be
made on the following night, and when the Turks rushed to the attack
he, accompanied by a party of sappers, sallied out into the ditch and
burned the bridge which had been made. The Turks, returning after their
fruitless assault, found their bridge destroyed, but with untiring
activity set to work and constructed it afresh. Dragging cannon to the
very edge of the ravelin, they, on the very next evening, revenged
themselves by also making a false attack: they swarmed into the ditch,
and, placing their scaling-ladders against the walls, pretended that an
escalade was to be attempted. The garrison, deceived, appeared on the
parapet in large numbers, when a murderous fire at point-blank range
was opened upon them from the ravelin. So great was the execution done
on this occasion that the garrison lost more men than had hitherto been
the case in the most determined attacks which they had sustained.
It now seemed as if indeed the end had come, that the garrison had done
all that was in the power of mortal man and nothing was left for them
but to retire while there was yet time. Accordingly choice was made of
the chevalier Median to represent the desperate extremities to which
they were reduced to La Valette. It was well known that for none among
the Knights had the Grand Master more respect than he had for Medran,
one of the bravest and most chivalrous of them all. He, at least, could
never be suspected of cowardice, feebleness, at a desire to desert his
post. This gallant Knight crossed the harbour on his dolorous errand
and was received by his chief: to him he represented the state of
affairs as it has here been set down, assuring him that at best the
fort could but hold out for a few days longer.
A chapter of the Knights Grand Cross was immediately held and the
most part of them were of opinion that the time had come to abandon a
hopeless position. But this decision did not meet with the approval
of the Grand Master. No one was more sensible than he of the peril to
which their brethren were exposed; at the same time, he contended, that
there were occasions on which it was necessary to sacrifice a certain
number for the good of the whole Order. He had certain information
that, if St. Elmo were abandoned, the Viceroy of Sicily would hazard
nothing for the relief of the island; that upon the arrival of succours
depended the existence of their ancient and honourable confederacy:
therefore, at no matter what cost, they were bound to hold out as long
as possible. So dominant was the personality of the Grand Master that,
in a short time, he had won over the votes of the chapter and Medran
was ordered to return to St. Elmo and deliver to the garrison a message
that the siege must take its course.
Medran accordingly returned and reported to his comrades the result
of his embassy. Several of the older Knights received the command
with due submission, but among those who were younger there were
murmurings. These men deemed the answer to their appeal hard and cruel;
they could see no object in the loss of their lives, which they well
knew would all be sacrificed in the next assault. They accordingly,
to the number of fifty-three, wrote a letter to the Grand Master,
demanding permission to abandon St. Elmo and retire to Il Borgo. If
their request were denied they announced their design to sally forth,
sword in hand, and perish in the ranks of the enemy. The Commandeur de
Cornet was the bearer of this letter, which was received by the Grand
Master with sorrow and indignation. To reassure them, he sent three
commissioners to inspect the place. This was done, and one of them, a
Knight of Greek descent named Constantine Castriot, reported that the
fort could still hold out a while longer. When he announced this at St.
Elmo the recalcitrant Knights were so furious with him that the Baili
of Negropont had to sound “the alarm” to prevent a disgraceful fracas.
The commissioners returned to Il Borgo. After hearing their report La
Valette wrote a letter to those by whom he had been memorialised to the
following effect:
“Return to the convent, my brothers; you will there be in greater
security; and on our part we shall feel a greater sense of security in
the conservation of so important a place, on which depends the safety
of the island and the honour of our Order.”
Never were men so taken aback as were the Knights in St. Elmo when
they received this response; here it was intimated to them that that
which they refused to do on account of the danger thereof was to be
undertaken by others. This was no more than a fact, as La Valette
was besieged with applications from, not only the Knights, but also
the simple soldiers of the garrison, to be allowed to pass over to
St. Elmo and die if necessary to the last man. It was, therefore,
with prayers and tears that the Knights besought the Grand Master to
allow them to remain. At first La Valette was adamant. He preferred,
he said, the rawest militia which was prepared to obey his orders, to
Knights who knew not their duty. In the end, however, he yielded, and
in the fortress of St. Elmo, that crushed and ruined charnel-house,
its defences gaping wide, its every corner exposed night and day to a
sweeping murderous fire, there remained a host of men sadly torn and
battered, but animated by such a spirit that nothing the Turks could
devise made upon it the least impression. These great and gallant
gentlemen had had their moment of weakness; they had been heartened to
the right conception of their duty by the noble veteran who was their
chief. To him had they turned at last, as his obedient children who had
had their moment of rebellion in a trial as hard as was ever undergone
by man. And now, as the inevitable end drew near, it was as if they
would imitate the Roman gladiator with that terrible chorus of his:
“Ave Cæsar morituri te salutant.”
All day and every day did the garrison fight, snatching such repose
as was possible when their pertinacious enemies, worn out by fatigue
and the terrible heat, could no longer be led to the attack against
those whom they now firmly believed to be in league with Shaitan
himself; “For how else,” demanded Janissary and Spahi alike, “could
infidels like these make head against those chosen of the Prophet like
ourselves.”
At this time the garrison took into use a device attributed to the
Grand Master himself. This consisted in hoops of wood which were first
thoroughly soaked in alcohol and then boiled in oil; they were then
tightly bound with cotton or wool, also soaked in inflammable liquids
mixed with saltpetre and gunpowder. Once these fiendish contrivances
were set alight nothing availed to put them out, and they were feared
as was naught else by the Turks during the remainder of the time they
were in Malta. They were particularly deadly against the Turks, and at
times two or more soldiers mounting the breach would be caught in one
of these fiery circles, and the unfortunate wretches would be burnt
alive. Even the Janissaries refused to advance at times when these
fireworks were being flung down upon their flowing garments.
On June 16th another attack was made on the fortress, and, incredible
as it may seem, it was repulsed with such awful slaughter that at last
the Turks would not face the swords of the garrison. Alter this the
enemy succeeded in drawing so close a cordon round the place that no
more succours could reach it, and the end was but a matter of time.
The day before it came Dragut, who, with his usual intrepidity, was
standing in the midst of a hot fire, was struck on the side of the
head by a stone dislodged from a wall by a cannon-ball. At the moment
when this happened he was holding a council of war in the trenches
with Piali, a Sanjak, and the principal Turkish engineer. The same
shot which wounded Dragut killed the Sanjak on the spot. Piali caused
a cloak to be thrown over the body of the corsair in order that
his state should not be observed by the soldiers, and as soon as
possible had him removed to his tent, where he lay unconscious till the
following day.
The council on which the corsair had been engaged when he received his
mortal wound had for its object the complete isolation of St. Elmo from
Il Borgo; his dispositions were completed and his orders given to the
engineer just before he was struck.
The agony of St. Elmo was drawing to an end; completely hemmed in by
the latest dispositions of Dragut, the fortress was at its last gasp;
a brave Maltese swimmer managed to slip through the cordon, swim the
harbour, and deliver to the Grand Master a letter from the Bailli of
Negropont. The Grand Master made one last effort to throw succours and
reinforcements into the place, but these were beaten off with terrible
slaughter: nothing now remained but to await the inevitable tragedy.
[Illustration: DEATH OF DRAGUT AT THE SIEGE OF MALTA.]
On the night of June 22nd the defenders of St. Elmo, having now lost
all hope of being supported, made ready for death. Into them La Valette
had breathed his own heroic spirit, and none among them counselled
or dreamed of surrender. The Order to which they had given their
allegiance now demanded of them the last sacrifice which it was in
their power to make, and this was offered in the manner most fitting to
its tenets. These exhausted, war-worn, battle-scarred warriors repaired
to the chapel, where they confessed, and made ready by partaking
together of the sacrament, “and, having thus surrendered their souls
to God, each retired to his post to die on the bed of honour with
arms in his hand.” Those among the Knights who were too severely
wounded or too ill to stand caused chairs to be carried to the breach
in which they seated themselves and awaited the assault. For four hours
did these indomitable men withstand the might of a host innumerable:
at the conclusion of this period there remained alive but sixty of the
garrison. Mustafa ceased the assault for a few moments only to replace
the storming party by fresh troops, and then the end came. Almost
the last to fall were the Chevalier Lamirande and the veteran Bailli
of Negropont, and when the crescent banner was planted on the walls
there remained alive not one of those defenders who had held the fort.
Several of Dragut’s officers ran to his tent and announced the taking
of St. Elmo. The great captain was in his last extremity and unable to
speak, “He, however, manifested his joy by several signs, and, raising
his eyes to heaven as if in thankfulness for its mercies, immediately
expired: a captain of rare valour and even abundantly more humane than
are ordinarily these corsairs.”
The Basha Piali, on entering the fort and observing with what miserable
resources it had so long been held exclaimed, as he looked across the
harbour to Il Borgo:
“What will not the parent do to us, when so small a son has cost us the
lives of our bravest soldiers?”
There is no record of what that cruel savage, Mustafa, said on this
occasion; his deeds, however, spoke eloquently. He caused the bodies of
the Knights to be decapitated and nailed to wooden crosses, while
across their corpses were slashed a cross in derision of the religion
of his foes. The bodies were then cast into the harbour, and were
washed up at the foot of Il Borgo. Instantly the Grand Master ordered
the decapitation of all the Turkish prisoners, and their heads were
fired from cannon into the camp of Mustafa.
With the remainder of the siege, which was yet to last till September
18th, we have no concern in this book. It is only necessary to say that
the men of Il Borgo were worthy to stand in the same category with the
defenders of St. Elmo, which is equivalent to stating that in them also
was discovered the last limit of heroism. The Grand Master survived
the siege, his monument is the noble city of “Valetta” built on Mount
Sceberras. The Turks abandoned the siege and returned to Constantinople
on the arrival of some insignificant reinforcements from Sicily. So
terrible had been the resistance of the Knights that no heart was left
in their armada. Of Dragut there remains but little to be said: he
was perhaps the best educated of the corsairs and less cruel than was
usually their habit. Although not so renowned as his more celebrated
master, Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa, this is, perhaps, because his career
was cut short at the siege of Malta at a comparatively early age.
Although he never attained the rank of Admiralissimo to the Grand Turk,
that potentate, as we have seen, placed in him the greatest confidence,
and relied largely on his judgment, especially when sea-affairs were in
question. Like the Barbarossas before him, he rose from nothing to the
height to which he eventually attained by sheer force of intellect
and character. In the stormy times in which his lot was cast he never
faltered in his onward way, never repined, never looked back, sustained
as he was by a consciousness of his own capability to rule the wild
spirits by whom he lived surrounded. So it is that, whatever other
opinion we may hold of Dragut, we cannot deny that in this captain of
the Sea-wolves were blended rare qualities, which caused him to shine
as a capable administrator, a fine seaman, but above all as a supreme
leader of men. Dragut died with arms in his hands fighting those whom
he considered to be his bitterest enemies. He did not live to see the
repulse of Piali and Mustapha, and it is to be presumed that he died
assured in his own mind that victory would rest with the Moslem host.
For such a man as this no death could have been more welcome.