the Saracens by the Normans. From 1090 to the reign of Charles the Fifth it had the same masters as Sicily, but was then presented to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who had been successively driven from Palestine and Rhodes. The order took possession of their island home, and were henceforth recognized in history as the Knights of Malta.

The Grand Master of the order immediately employed himself in putting the island in a state of defense. The news had reached him that the Turkish emperor, Soliman, had given orders to Sinan Bassa, whom he had sent to besiege Tripoli, to destroy in his passage the Knights of St. John, whom he was pleased to designate as a nest of robbers. Time was precious, the danger was imminent, but the knights and people labored hard to prepare for the defense; and when Sinan landed, and attentively considered the Castle of St. Angelo

"Whose stony strength Would laugh a siege to scorn'

pended, while the knights themselves were dispersed. In 1800 it was taken by the English.

But apart from all this, there is a peculiar interest attaching to the Island of Malta, from the episode in the life of the great apostle which there occurred. On his voyage to Rome, "there arose a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon," which drove the vessel out of her course, and filled those ancient mariners with fear and trembling, and falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground. "And the centurion commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea: and the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship, and so it came to escaped all safe to land. And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita."

pass that they

The remembrance of the visit of St. Paul to the island is preserved by the people, and the recollections of the viper which fastened on his hand, the sick men which he healed, the wonder of his short residence, are still cherished. Tradition points out a grotto where it is said the apostle dwelt. There an image of the saint had been erected and a chapel built. Say the people, when the sainted missionary shook the viper off his hand, he pro

In 1565 another attack was made by the Turks upon the island. The battle was long and terrible, and the siege protracted to a very lengthened period. The knights exhibited the utmost bravery and activity. La Valette, the Grand Master, was dangerously wounded; and when some of his friends wished him to retire, he replied, "At seventy-one, can I finish my life more gloriously than by dying among my brethren ?" The Turks were repulsed with the truest courage, and never again set foot in Malta. La Valette built a town on the theater of his glory, which he called by his own name. Thither was removed the convent of the knights, and in order that the work might be free from all pecuniary. interruption, when money failed they paid in copper, which was afterward called in, and the full value given for it. In 1798 the island was surrendered to the French, and the order of knighthood sus

reptiles in the island, and that thenceforward they disappeared entirely. Curative properties are attributed to the white substance which is taken from the damp walls of the grotto, and which resembles magnesia in its appearance. This is sold very extensively in Malta, and is also an important object of commerce.

Malta was then in a state very different from the splendid condition in which the knights left it in our days. There was only one town in the island, called "Città Notabile,” (now Città Vecchia,) but which was a miserable, half-deserted place, partially surrounded by a moldering wall; there was only one fortress, named St. Angelo, and it was partly in ruins, while the whole of its artillery consisted of one small cannon, two falcons, and a few iron mortars. The entire population amounted only to twelve thousand, and these were poor and wretched, owing to the barrenness of the soil, and the frequent descents of the Barbary corsairs, who frequently carried off the inhabitants of the villages into slavery.

THE CRUSADES.

THE HE first operation of the armies after they had crossed the Bosporus was the siege of Nice, to gain possession of which all their efforts were directed. Godfrey of Bouillon and the Count of Vermandois were joined under its walls by each host in succession as it left Constantinople. Among the celebrated Crusaders who fought at this siege we find, beside the leaders already mentioned, the brave and generous Tancred, whose name and fame have been immortalized in the Gerusalemme Liberata, the valorous Bishop of Puy, Baldwin, afterward king of Jerusalem, and Peter the Hermit, now an almost solitary soldier, shorn of all the power and influence he had formerly possessed. Kilij Aslaun, the sultan of Roum and chief of the Seljukian Turks, whose deeds, surrounded by the false halo of romance, are familiar to the readers of Tasso, under the name of Soliman, marched to defend this city, but was defeated after several obstinate engagements, in which the Christians showed a degree of heroism that quite astonished him. The Turkish chief had expected to find a wild undisciplined multitude, like that under Peter the Hermit, without leaders capable of enforcing obedience; instead of which, he found the most experienced leaders of the age at the head of armies that had just fanaticism enough to be ferocious, but not enough to render them ungovernable. In these engagements, many hundreds fell on both sides; and on both sides the most revolting barbarity was practiced the Crusaders cut off the heads of the fallen Mussulmans, and sent them in panniers to Constantinople, as trophies of their victory. After the temporary defeat of Kilij Aslaun, the siege of Nice was carried on with redoubled vigor. The Turks defended themselves with the greatest obstinacy, and discharged showers of poisoned arrows upon the Crusaders. When any unfortunate wretch was killed under the walls, they let down iron hooks from above, and drew the body up, which, after stripping and mutilating, they threw back again at the besiegers. The latter were well supplied with provisions, and for six-and-thirty days the siege continued without any relaxation of the efforts on either side. Many tales are told of the almost superhuman heroism of the Chris

:

One anecdote of Godfrey of Bouillon, related by Albert of Aix, is worth recording, not only as showing the high opinion entertained of his valor, but as showing the contagious credulity of the armies— a credulity which as often led them to the very verge of defeat, as it incited them to victory. One Turk, of gigantic stature, took his station day by day on the battlements of Nice, and, bearing an enormous bow, committed great havoc among the Christian host. Not a shaft he sped but bore death upon its point; and although the Crusaders aimed repeatedly at his breast, and he stood in the most exposed position, their arrows fell harmless at his feet. He seemed to be invulnerable to attack; and a report was soon spread abroad, that he was no other than the Arch Fiend himself, and that mortal hand could not prevail against him. Godfrey of Bouillon, who had no faith in the supernatural character of the Mussulman, determined, if possible, to put an end to the dismay which was rapidly paralyzing the exertions of his best soldiers. Taking a huge cross-bow, he stood forward in front of the army, to try the steadiness of his hand against the much-dreaded archer: the shaft was aimed directly at his heart, and took fatal effect. The Moslem fell amid the groans of the besieged, and the shouts of Deus adjuva! Deus adjuva! the war-cry of the besiegers.

At last the Crusaders imagined that they had overcome all obstacles, and were preparing to take possession of the city, when, to their great astonishment, they saw the flag of the Emperor Alexius flying from the battlements. An emissary of the emperor, named Faticius or Tatin, had contrived to gain admission, with a body of Greek troops, at a point which the Crusaders had left unprotected, and had persuaded the Turks to surrender to him rather than to the crusading forces. The greatest indignation prevailed in the army when this stratagem was discovered, and the soldiers were with the utmost difficulty prevented from renewing the attack and besieging the Greek emissary.

The army, however, continued its march, and, by some means or other, was broken into two divisions; some historians say accidentally, while others affirm by

to grow weary of the expedition. Baldwin had previously detached himself from the main body of the army, and, proceeding to Edessa, had intrigued himself into the supreme power in that little principality. The other leaders were animated with less zeal than heretofore. Stephen of Chartres and Hugh of Vermandois began to waver, unable to endure the privations which their own folly and profusion had brought upon them. Even Peter the Hermit became sick at heart ere all was over. When the famine had become so urgent that they were reduced to eat human flesh in the extremity of their hunger, Bohemund and Robert of Flanders set forth on an expedition to procure a supply. They were in a slight degree successful; but the relief they brought was not economized, and in two days they were as destitute as before. Faticius, the Greek commander and repre

sentative of Alexius, deserted with his division under pretence of seeking for food, and his example was followed by various bodies of Crusaders.

Misery was rife among those who remained, and they strove to alleviate it by a diligent attention to signs and omens. These, with extraordinary visions seen by the enthusiastic, alternately cheered and depressed them according as they foretold the triumph or pictured the reverse of the cross. At one time a violent hurricane arose, leveling great trees with the ground, and blowing down the tents of the Christian leaders. At another time an earthquake shook the camp, and was thought to prognosticate some great impending evil to the cause of Christendom. But a comet which appeared shortly afterward raised them from the despondency into which they had fallen; their lively

imaginations making it assume the form of a flaming cross leading them on to victory. Famine was not the least of the evils they endured. Unwholesome food, and the impure air from the neighboring marshes, engendered pestilential diseases, which carried them off more rapidly than the arrows of the enemy. A thousand of them died in a day, and it became at last a matter of extreme difficulty to afford them burial. To add to their misery, each man grew suspicious of his neighbor; for the camp was infested by Turkish spies, who conveyed dayly to the besieged intelligence of the movements and distresses of the enemy. With a ferocity, engendered by despair, Bohemund caused two spies, whom he had detected, to be roasted alive in presence of the army, and within sight of the battlements of Antioch. But even this example failed to reduce their numbers, and the Turks continued to be as well informed as the Christians themselves of all that was passing in the

camp.

The news of the arrival of a reinforcement of soldiers from Europe, with an abundant stock of provisions, came to cheer them when reduced to the last extremity. The welcome succour landed at St. Simeon, the port of Antioch, and about six miles from that city. Thitherward the famishing Crusaders proceeded in tumultuous bands, followed by Bohemund and the Count of Toulouse, with strong detachments of their retainers and vassals, to escort the supplies in safety to the camp. The garrison of Antioch, forewarned of this arrival, was on the alert, and a corps 'of Turkish archers were dispatched to lie in ambuscade among the mountains and intercept their return. Bohemund, laden | with provisions, was encountered in the rocky passes by the Turkish host. Great numbers of his followers were slain, and he himself had just time to escape to the camp with the news of his defeat. Godfrey of Bouillon, the Duke of Normandy, and the other leaders, had heard the rumor of this battle, and were at that instant preparing for the rescue. The army was immediately in motion, animated both by zeal and by hunger, and marched so rapidly as to intercept the victorious Turks before they had time to reach Antioch with their spoil. A fierce battle ensued, which lasted from noon till the going down of the sun. The Christians gained and maintained the VOL. IV., No. 4.-CC

advantage, each man fighting as if upon himself alone had depended the fortune of the day. Hundreds of Turks perished in the Orontes, and more than two thousand were left dead upon the field of battle. All the provision was recaptured and brought in safety to the camp, whither the Crusaders returned singing, Alleluia! or shouting, Deus adjuva! Deus adjuva!

This relief lasted for some days, and, had it been duly economized, would have lasted much longer; but the chiefs had no authority, and were unable to exercise any control over its distribution. Famine again approached with rapid strides, and Stephen, Count of Blois, not liking the prospect, withdrew from the camp with four thousand of his retainers, and established himself at Alexandretta. The moral influence of this desertion was highly prejudicial upon those who remained; and Bohemund, the most impatient and ambitious of the chiefs, foresaw that, unless speedily checked, it would lead to the utter failure of the expedition. It was necessary to act decisively; the army murmured at the length of the siege, and the sultan was collecting his forces to crush them. Against the efforts of the Crusaders Antioch might have held out for months; but treason within effected that which courage without might have striven for in vain.

Baghasihan, the Turkish prince or emir of Antioch, had under his command an Armenian of the name of Phirouz, whom he had intrusted with the defense of a tower on that part of the city wall which overlooked the passes of the mountains. Bohemund, by means of a spy who had embraced the Christian religion, and to whom he had given his own name at baptism, kept up a dayly communication with this captain, and made him the most magnificent promises of reward if he would deliver up his post to the Crusaders. Whether the proposal was first made by Bohemund or by the Armenian is uncertain, but that a good understanding soon existed between them is undoubted; and a night was fixed for the execution of the project. Bohemund communicated the scheme to Godfrey and the Count of Toulouse, with the stipulation that, if the city were won, he, as the soul of the enterprise, should enjoy the dignity of Prince of Antioch. The other leaders hesitated: ambition and jealousy prompted them to refuse their