is XIV., and the
Knights were forced to confine their attentions to Turkish vessels
trading between Turkish ports. England was destined later to incur
similar trouble with neutrals for a similar theory of international
law.

Had the Knights wished, their unending warfare against the Mohammedan
would have found a suitable enemy in the Barbary Corsairs, who were
a plague to Europe right to the year 1816; but though we find many a
struggle between Knight and Corsair in the seventeenth century, the
sloth and decadence that were mastering the Order made it gradually
neglect its duty in that direction. Whatever energies they had
were more profitably spent in the Levant; for the Knights, in their
seafaring expeditions, became little more than Corsairs themselves.
When it was necessary, as at the twenty-five years' siege of Candia
(1644-1669), the Knights displayed once more that magnificent heroism
that had made their name ring throughout the world. We find through
the seventeenth century many a display of bravery, but they became
more and more infrequent, till, in the eighteenth century, the Order's
squadron was used for little else but show voyages to different
Mediterranean ports. It was becoming too great a task even to raid
Turkish merchantmen.

After the siege it was determined to move the _chef-lieu_ of the Order
from Il Borgo to Mount Sceberras, and on March 28, 1566, the building
of Valetta was commenced. It was originally intended to bring the hill
down to a certain level and on the plateau thus constructed to build
the city. The fear of another Turkish invasion, however, did not allow
of the completion of this plan, with the result that Valetta consists
of a long, narrow plateau with slopes descending to Marso Muscetto on
one side and the Grand Harbour on the other. The difficulty of moving
about in this hilly town is commemorated in Byron's lines:

Adieu, ye joys of La Valette,
Adieu, sirocco, sun, and sweat,
Adieu, ye cursed streets of stairs,
How surely he who mounts you swears.

Each Grand Master strove to enlarge and strengthen the town's
fortifications, with the result that, in the eighteenth century,
Valetta was recognised as one of the greatest fortresses in the world.
The building and upkeep of these fortifications proved a great drain
upon the resources of the Order, and served but little purpose, except
that of ministering to the vanity of successive Grand Masters, who
desired to leave behi