[1269] "Attendu que est venu a sa notice que ledict de Montigny seroit alle de vie a trespas, par mort naturelle, en la forteresse de Symancques, ou il estoit dernierement detenu prisonier." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 171.
[1270] For the preceding pages I have been indebted, among other sources, to Sagredo, "Memorias Historicas de los Monarcas Othomanos,"
(trad. Cast., Madrid, 1684,) and to Ranke, "Ottoman and Spanish Empires;" to the latter in particular. The work of this eminent scholar, resting as it mainly does on the contemporary reports of the Venetian ministers, is of the most authentic character; while he has the rare talent of selecting facts so significant for historical ill.u.s.tration, that they serve the double purpose of both facts and reflections.
[1271] Cervantes, in his story of the Captive"s adventures in Don Quixote, tells us that it was common with a renegado to obtain a certificate from some of the Christian captives of his desire to return to Spain; so that if he were taken in arms against his countrymen, his conduct would be set down to compulsion, and he would thus escape the fangs of the Inquisition.
[1272] See the History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. III.
part ii. chap. 21.
[1273] Ferreras, Hist. d"Espagne, tom. IX. p. 415 et seq.--Herrera, Historia General, lib. V. cap. 18.--Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. V.
cap. 8.--Segrado, Monarcas Othomanos, p. 234 et seq.
[1274] "Hallo Don Alvaro un remedio para la falta del agua que en parte ayudo a la necessidad, y fue, que uno de su campo le mostro, que el agua salada se podia destilar por alambique, y aunque salio buena, y se bevia, no se hazia tanta que basta.s.se, y se gastava mucha lena, de que tenian falta." Herrera, Historia General, tom. I. p. 434.
[1275] For the account of the heroic defence of Gelves, see--and reconcile, if the reader can--Herrera, ubi supra; Ferreras, Hist.
d"Espagne, tom. IX. pp. 416-421; Leti, Filippo II., tom. I. pp. 349-352; Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. V. cap. 11, 12; Campana, Vita di Filippo II., par. II. lib. 12; Segrado, Monarcas Othomanos, p. 237 et seq.--Sepulveda, De Rebus Gestis Philippi II., pp. 63-87.
[1276] "Questa sola utilita ne cava il Re di quei luoghi per conservatione de quali spende ogni anno gran somma di denari delle sue entrate." Relatione de Soriano, 1560, MS.
[1277] Ferreras, Hist. d"Espagne, tom. IX. p. 426.--Sepulveda, De Rebus Gestis Philippi II. p. 90.
[1278] The details of the battle were given in a letter, dated September 5, 1558, by Don Alonzo to the king. His father fell, it seems, in an attempt to rescue his younger son from the hands of the enemy. Though the father died, the son was saved. It was the same Don Martin de Cordova who so stoutly defended Mazarquivir against Ha.s.sem afterwards, as mentioned in the text. Carta De Don Alonso de Cordova al Rey, de Toledo, MS.
[1279] The tidings of this sad disaster, according to Cabrera, hastened the death of Charles the Fifth (Filipe Segundo, lib. IV. cap. 13). But a letter from the imperial secretary, Gaztelu, informs us that care was taken that the tidings should not reach the ear of his dying master. "La muerte del conde de Alcaudete y su desbarato se entendio aqui por carta de Don Alonso su hijo que des.p.a.cho un correo desde Toledo con la nueva y por ser tan ruyn y estar S. Magd. en tal disposicion no se le dixo, y se tendra cuydado de que tampoco la sepa hasta que plazca a Dios este libre; porque no se yo si hay ninguno en cuyo tiempo haya sucedido tan gran desgracia como esta." Carta de Martin de Gaztelu al Secretario Molina, de Yuste, Set. 12, 1558, MS.--The original of this letter, like that of the preceding, is in the Archives of Simancas.
[1280] Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VI cap. 10.
[1281] For this siege, the particulars of which are given in a manner sufficiently confused by most of the writers, see Ferreras, Hist.
d"Espagne, tom. IX. p. 431 et seq.; Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VI.
cap. 10; Sepulveda, De Rebus Gestis Philippi II., p. 94; Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquia de Espana, (Madrid, 1770,) tom. II. p. 127; Miniana, Historia de Espana, pp. 341, 342; Caro de Torres, Historia de las Ordenes Militares, fol. 154.
[1282] According to Cabrera, (Filipe Segundo, lib. VI. cap. 12,) two thousand infidels fell on this occasion, and only ten Christians; a fair proportion for a Christian historian to allow. _Ex uno,_ etc.
[1283] Ferreras, Hist. d"Espagne, tom. IX. p. 455.
[1284] Campana, Vita di Filippo II., tom. II. p. 138.
[1285] Ferreras, Hist. d"Espagne, tom. IX. p. 461.
[1286] Ibid., p. 442 et seq.--Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VI. cap.
13.--Campana, Vita di Filippo II., tom. I. pp. 137-139.--Herrera, Hist.
General, lib. X cap. 4.
The last historian closes his account of the siege of Mazarquivir with the following not inelegant and certainly not parsimonious tribute to the heroic conduct of Don Martin and his followers: "Despues de noventa y dos dias que sostuvo este terrible cerco, y se embarco para Espana, quedando para siempre glorioso con los soldados que con el se hallaron, ellos por aver sido tan obedientes, y por las hazanas que hizieron, y el por el valor y prudencia con que los governo: por lo qual comparado a qualquiera de los mayores Capitanes del mundo." Historia General, lib.
X. cap. 4.
[1287] Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VI. cap. 18.--Herrera, Hist.
General, tom. I. p. 559 et seq.
[1288] The affair of the Rio de Tetuan is given at length in the despatches of Don Alvaro Bazan, dated at Ceuta, March 10, 1565. The correspondence of this commander is still preserved in the family archives of the marquis of Santa Cruz, from which the copies in my possession were taken.
[1289] Helyot, Hist. des Ordres Religieux et Militaires, (Paris, 1792, 4to.,) tom. III. pp. 74-78.--Vertot, History of the Knights of Malta, (Eng. trans., London, 1728, fol.,) vol. II. pp. 18-24.
[1290] Boisgelin, on the authority of Matthew Paris, says that, in 1224, the Knights of St. John had 19,000 manors in different parts of Europe, while the Templars had but 9,000. Ancient and Modern Malta, (London, 1805, 4to.,) vol. II. p, 19.
[1291] For an account of the inst.i.tutions of the order of St. John, see Helyot, Ordres Religieux, tom. II. p. 58 et seq.; also the Old and New Statutes, appended to vol. II. of Vertot"s History of the Knights of Malta.
[1292] The original deed of cession, in Latin, is published by Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. II. p. 157 et seq.
[1293] "Rhodes," from the Greek ??d??. The origin of the name is referred by etymologists to the great quant.i.ty of roses which grew wild on the island. The name of _Malta_ (_Melita_) is traced to the wild honey, ???, of most excellent flavor, found among its rocks.
[1294] A recent traveller, after visiting both Rhodes and Malta, thus alludes to the change in the relative condition of the two islands. "We are told that, when L"Isle Adam and his brave companions first landed on this sh.o.r.e, their spirits sank within them at the contrast its dry and barren surface presented to their delicious lost Rhodes; I have qualified myself for adjudging that in most respects the tables are now turned between the two islands, and they certainly afford a very decisive criterion of the results of Turkish and Christian dominion."
The Earl of Carlisle"s Diary in Turkish and Greek Waters, (Boston, 1855,) p. 204;--an unpretending volume, which bears on every page evidence of the wise and tolerant spirit, the various scholarship, and the sensibility to the beautiful, so characteristic of its n.o.ble author.
[1295] For the account of Malta I am much indebted to Boisgelin, "Ancient and Modern Malta." This work gives the most complete view of Malta, both in regard to the natural history of the island and the military and political history of the order, that is to be found in any book with which I am acquainted. It is a large repository of facts crudely put together, with little to boast of on the score of its literary execution. It is interesting as the production of a Knight of St. John, one of the unhappy few who survived to witness the treachery of his brethren and the extinction of his order. The last of the line, he may well be pardoned, if, in his survey of the glorious past, he should now and then sound the trumpet of glorification somewhat too loudly.
[1296] "The galleys of the order alone resisted the fury of the waves; and when Charles the Fifth was told that some vessels appeared still to live at sea, he exclaimed, "They must, indeed, be Maltese galleys which can outride such a tempest!" The high opinion he had formed of this fleet was fully justified; for the standard of the order was soon in sight." Boisgelin, Ancient and Modern Malta, vol. II. p. 34.
[1297] Ibid., p. 61 et alibi.
[1298] The value of the freight was estimated at more than 80,000 ducats.--"Se estimo la presa mas de ochenta mil ducados, de sedas de levante, y alombras y otras cosas, cada uno piense lo que se diria en la corte del Turco, sobre la perdida desta nave tan poderosa, y tan rica."
La Verdadera Relacion de todo lo que el Ano de M.D.LXV. ha succedido en la Isla de Malta, por Francis...o...b..lbi de Correggio, en todo el Sitio Soldado, (Barcelona 1568,) fol. 19.
[1299] Ibid., fol. 17.
[1300] Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. II. pp. 192-195.--Sagredo, Monarcas Othomanos, p. 244.--Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 26 et seq.--Boisgelin, Ancient and Modern Malta, vol. II. pp. 71-73.--De Thou, Hist. Universelle, tom. V. pp. 51-53--J. M. Calderon de la Barca, Gloriosa Defensa de Malta, (Madrid, 1796,) p. 28.
[1301] Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. II. p. 197.--Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 28.--The latter chronicler, who gives a catalogue of the forces, makes the total amount of fighting men not exceed six thousand one hundred. He speaks, however, of an indefinite number besides these, including a thousand slaves, who in various ways contributed to the defence of the island.
[1302] "De modo que quado los turcos llegaron sobre sant Ermo, hauia ochocientos hombres dentro para pelear." Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol.
37.
[1303] Ibid., fol. 31.--Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. II. p. 198.
[1304] "En este tiempo ya todos los esclauos a.s.si de sant Juan como de particulares estauan en la carcel, que seria bien mil esclauos. Y quando los sacauan a trabajar a las postas adonde se trabajaua, los sacauan de dos en dos, asidos de vna cadena." Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 37.
[1305] Ibid., fol. 23.
[1306] Ibid., fol. 21.--Vertot says, of a hundred and sixty pounds"weight. (Knights of Malta, vol. II. p. 202.) Yet even this was far surpa.s.sed by the mammoth cannon employed by Mahomet at the siege of Constantinople, in the preceding century, which, according to Gibbon, threw stone bullets of six hundred pounds.
Since the above lines were written, even this achievement has been distanced by British enterprise. The "Times" informs us of some "monster guns," intended to be used in the Baltic, the minimum weight of whose shot is to be three cwt., and the maximum ten.
[1307] Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 26.--The old soldier goes into the composition of the Turkish force, in the general estimate of which he does not differ widely from Vertot.
[1308] Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 84.
[1309] Ibid., ubi supra.
[1310] Balbi, Verdadera Relacion, fol. 37 et seq.--Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. II. pp. 200-202.--- Calderon, Gloriosa Defensa de Malta, p.