[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.
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