Several of
Dragut's officers ran to his tent and announced the taking of St. Elmo. The
great captain was in his last extremity and unable to speak, "He, however,
manifested his joy by several signs, and, raising his eyes to heaven as if
in thankfulness for its mercies, immediately expired: a captain of rare
valour and even abundantly more humane than are ordinarily these corsairs."
The Basha Piali, on entering the fort and observing with what miserable
resources it had so long been held exclaimed, as he looked across the
harbour to Il Borgo:
"What will not the parent do to us, when so small a son has cost us the
lives of our bravest soldiers?"
There is no record of what that cruel savage, Mustafa, said on this
occasion; his deeds, however, spoke eloquently. He caused the bodies of the
Knights to be decapitated and nailed to wooden crosses, while across their
corpses were slashed a cross in derision of the religion of his foes. The
bodies were then cast into the harbour, and were washed up at the foot of
Il Borgo. Instantly the Grand Master ordered the decapitation of all the
Turkish prisoners, and their heads were fired from cannon into the camp of
Mustafa.
With the remainder of the siege, which was yet to last till September 18th,
we have no concern in this book. It is only necessary to say that the men
of Il Borgo were worthy to stand in the same category with the defenders of
St. Elmo, which is equivalent to stating that in them also was discovered
the last limit of heroism.
Pages:
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356