the breach was practicable for a man to ride through it from the glacis into the town; after keeping the garrison under arms almost night and day for two months; after actually surprising them at last, and gaining the walls without resistance; they had failed, and in the most ignominious manner. When, and under what conditions, could they hope to succeed? Whatever authenticity might be supposed to attach to the reported vision of the blazing cross, there was enough seen that day of the great ensign of the Order to create a very strong impression of superhuman power fighting on that side. The eight-pointed cross of pure white, gleaming over the cuirass of every one of their knightly opponents, and most conspicuously over the well-known gilt armour of the terrible Grand Master in front of all, pressed them backwards step by step up the inner stairs, cleared the parapet, pursued them over the ditch, and struck them down by thousands. The facts might well justify, on this day as on others, to the minds of both parties the legend of ΕΝ ΤΟΥΤΩΙ NIKA. Even the Basha, with the fear of the bowstring before his eyes, and the thought of an angry master sure to ask, if not where are my legions?' at any rate where are the keys of the town you promised to conquer?' felt that it was useless to maintain the siege any longer. He attempted no fresh offensive operations against the town. Some fifteen days afterwards two ships, sent by the King of Naples with reinforcements, both of men and material, appeared in the offing, and after a severe engagement with the Turkish gallies, under the fire, moreover, of the land batteries, succeeded in breaking the blockade and landing their cargo. The Rhodians were truly joyous and recomforted by the vivers and refreshments' thus received; and the friendly faces were 'les très bien venus et receus de ceulx de la ville.' Besides actual succour, these ships conveyed the assurance of moral support and the promise of material assistance from the Powers of Christendom, a paternal admonition by Pontifical letters from the Holy See, and the report of an approaching expedition, aimed at the entire destruction of the enemy's fleet. Caoursin hints that this rumour spread to the camp of the Basha, and quickened his departure. At all events, his want of power to maintain an effective blockade showed him that his position might become dangerous as well as useless during the ensuing winter. After ravaging the island, carrying off all the cattle he could lay hands on, and destroying the gardens and vineyards, he set sail with his whole fleet for the harbour of Physco, on the 15th of August, the day of the Assumption of the Virgin. On that very day, 170 years before, the Hospitallers VOL. CI. NO. CCV. L of St. John had stormed the city of Rhodes after a siege of four years, and won the proud title of which the Infidels were so anxious to deprive them. 'And you must know,' says our French chronicler, that in their retreating the Turks made not that great cheer, nor sounded their drums or trumpets, nor 'made the great noise that they did at the laying of the siege, 'but retired as coyly as they could for the fear that they had of those of the town; and so they went off to their great dis'honour. And let us pray God devoutly that they may all (en 'tel lieu') become good Christians, and uphold the Catholic faith, ' or otherwise may God of his grace be pleased to destroy them 'altogether, that they may never harm good Christians any 'more. Amen.' So perorates, as in Catholic duty bound, the rough and ready soldier, rude and gross of sense and under'standing,' but painstaking inquirer, and strong and picturesque narrator, Mary Dupuis. 6 We said above that the Cross struck down its adversaries by thousands on the day of the storming. As was usual in the mêlées of those times, the great carnage took place more in the pursuit than in the actual contest. The loss on the part of the Knights was about forty killed (of whom fifteen were among their best officers) and more than 500 wounded. Of the enemy's picked troops there were found after the fight, within the walls, 133, dead or alive; the finest men, says Dupuis, that were ever looked on. These were all thrown into the sea. In the ditch and the approaches, where the Turks were slaughtered like 'swine' in their panic, there were counted 3,500 corpses, or more; exclusive of the wounded who regained the camp, where they died in great numbers, as was proved by the size of the cemeteries. The corpses that fell into the possession of the Knights when the siege was raised, were burnt (to avoid a pestilence) upon huge funeral piles made of the timber used in the Turkish works and approaches. For nine days, as in the plains of Troy, πυραὶ νεκύων καίοντο θαμειαι—while the good wives of Rhodes (pardon our chronicler for this touch of nature), who saw the Turks frying in their own grease, cursed them, and 'said they were so fat with the figs and other fruits which they had devoured in the citizens' gardens.' Palæologus Basha escaped the bowstring after all. Undoubtedly he ran great risk of it, after so ignominious a failure in the enterprise which he had done so much to instigate. Mahomet was contented, however, with banishing him to Gallipoli; and, like that general, whose presence in the field was estimated by his greatest antagonist as equivalent to forty thousand men, consoled himself for the defeat of his lieutenant by declaring that his troops were never successful except when led by himself in person. After collecting in Bithynia during the ensuing winter an army estimated at 300,000 men, he commenced a southward march across Asia Minor, as soon as the season admitted of commencing the campaign. There can be no doubt that Rhodes, so long the eyesore of his power, was the object of this expedition; but such absolute secrecy was maintained as to its destination, that many thought it was intended against the soldan of Egypt. Forty years, however, were still to elapse before the banner of the Crescent should wave over the citadel of Rhodes; and Mahomet was fated to die in his march across Bithynia, on the 3rd of May, 1481. The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes: and they shone portentously on this occasion. Four comets foretold to the astrologers with great precision Mahomet's death, and the dissensions consequent thereon between his sons Bajazet and Zizim. Without professing to guarantee the prophecies as delivered before the event, we subjoin for the curious the accounts of these celestial phenomena transmitted through the poetry of the age. 'Inanci el suo spirare quatro comete In cielo aparveno con molto isplendore E le tre comete minore degne e belle E una stella rossa loro in mezo.' - Such were the heavenly signs to each of which astrology assigned its due signification. The largest comet portended the death of the emperor-Cioe el gran turcho, capo di turchia,'— the three others, with their varieties of colour, twisted tails, and bloody scythe, foretold, with minute particularity, the course of the quarrel between Mahomet's sons, as it came to pass. Ed e adempito per astrologia Quel che tutti i dottori dichiarone; and so on. Come el gran turcho morebbe di turchia, E fra' figlioli sarebbe divisione :' The earth gave its tokens as well as the sky:- until, in accordance with his destiny, 'Si come piacque al eterno Signore El gran turcho de vita trapassò.' The news of Mahomet's death reached Rhodes, as Caoursin tells us, exactly one year after the opening of the first battery against the tower of St. Nicholas. Well pleased the Knights must have been to escape a repetition of the last year's siege, if nothing worse. It became the duty of the Vice-Chancellor and Public Orator to improve the occasion; and he has happily reported in full the Oration De Morte Magni Thurci, delivered in the Senate of Rhodes on the day before the Kalends of June, 1481. Our readers may be edified by a slight paraphrase or summary. Not without God's pity,' begins the pious orator, and that 'divine nod to which all things bow, is the poisoned wound of • Christendom healed, the consuming fire quenched; the devouring serpent, the second Mahomet, the bitterest enemy of the life-giving Cross, and of this our military Order (which has been rescued by favour of that redeeming sign alone), is dead. How did the infernal one rejoice at the coming of his abandoned comrade, and the inmates of hell receive him with shouts of joy; if, indeed, there is any joy in that abode at all. For surely the fearful mansion of eternal misery is duly reserved for that most wicked of tyrants, who destroyed the souls of so many children, whom he drove to the denying of their faith; who dragged so many holy maidens from the religious service whereunto they were dedicated; who ruined so many noble virgins and chaste wives; who slaughtered alike the young, the old, and the decrepid; who profaned the relics of the saints, and polluted with the foul rites of Mahomet the temples and monasteries of the Catholic faith; who swallowed up inheritances, trampled on and seized for his own kingdoms principalities and cities; even to the noble imperial city of Constantinople; where he committed such enormities of cruelty, superstition, and wickedness,' as Caoursin does not like to think of. The tongue of a virtuous public orator sticks. to the roof of his mouth, his face is suffused with blushes, and his pale lips are quivering, at speaking of crimes so savage in the presence of the Grand Master and that most illustrious assembly: he can scarcely refrain from tears: but he trusts they will pardon him, inasmuch as Plato himself says that speech must be suited to facts. Who can invent a punishment severe enough, or find in hell a place fit for such a monster, where his cruel soul may duly pay its endless penalty? Truly a second Lucifer, a second Mahomet, a second Anti-Christ; whose guilty corpse (as we may infer) Earth itself refused to 'contain, gaping so widely that it sank at once down to the centre and the perpetual chaos of the wicked, where its odour of unholiness was so villainous as even to aggravate their former pains. For, about the time of his expiring, shocks of earthquake were felt over Asia, Rhodes, and the adjscent islands, of which the violence destroyed castles, palaces, and 'citadels: the sea itself rose on a sudden ten feet above, and 'ebbed as many below, its usual level. Such phenomena must be referred to the strength of the horrid exhalation mentioned above: for although they may be brought about in accordance with physical principles, still they are wont to portend or 'accompany some great event.' It appeared noteworthy to the genius of that age, that the death of the Great Turk should have occurred on the anniversary of the finding of the true Cross. The oration naturally concludes with the compliments suggested by the occasion to our high and mighty prince and grandmaster, Peter D'Aubusson, who in faith may be said to rival the Maccabees, in 'strength Samson, in prudence Cato, in good fortune Metellus, in military genius Hannibal, and in the glory of his 'victory Julius Cæsar.' One of the woodcuts in Caoursin's volume illustrates the scene of Mahomet's deathbed. A crowned, bearded, hooknosed, ghastly figure lies propped up by pillows on a couch, at the foot of which an attendant is uplifting the wail. The gaunt and powerless arms have fallen outside the coverlet, at the folds of which the fingers have been fumbling. The Ulemas, or whatever other name belongs to the Mahometan priesthood of that age, are administering the last consolations of their religion, and exhibiting for the sultan to kiss or adore an emblem which may be a metal plate with rayed edges, representing a sun or star. In the background are the royal physicians, with crossed forefingers and significant gesticulation, muttering their |