Elmo to the last man. What man or woman can read without something of a
lump coming in their throat of those noble words of the Grand Master in the
last few days of the siege when all had utterly abandoned hope?
Grimed, emaciated, covered with sweat and blood and dust, did La Valette
move from post to post exhorting and encouraging his soldiers. So few had
the gallant company of the Knights become that command was necessarily
delegated to the under-officers; yet who among them did not find fresh
courage and renewed strength when that great noble, the head of the Order,
stood by their sides and spoke thus to them as man to man?--
"My brothers, we are all servants of Jesus Christ; and I feel assured
that if I and all these in command should fall you will still fight on
for the honour of the Order and the love of our Holy Church."
We have to think of what it all meant, we have dimly to try and realise the
burden which was laid upon this man, before we come to a right conception,
not only of what he endured but the terrible sacrifices he was called upon
to make. Here was no man of iron lusting for blood and greedy of conquest
for the sake of the vain applause of men; but one full of human love and
affection for those among whom he had lived all the days of his life. Upon
him was laid the charge of upholding the honour of the Order, the majesty
of the God whom he served. To this end he doomed to certain death those
brethren of his in St.
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