fort of
St Demetrius, the Vetturi, Jesus, Martinengo, Bethlehem,
Panigra, and St Andrew.

Great was the rejoicing throughout Europe at the tidings that the pride
of the Ottoman battle had once more been driven back discomfited, for
the best and bravest of nearly every nation in Christendom were now to
be found in the ranks of the defenders:[18] and great, on the other
hand, was the perplexity of the divan, and the chagrin of the Turkish
population, at the apparently endless duration of an enterprise, a
speedy and glorious termination of which had been expected from the
presence of the vizir. The sultan even dispatched a confidential agent
to the seat of war, to examine personally into the state of affairs; and
finding from his report that the army was reduced, by the sword and the
ravages of disease, to half its original effective strength, he issued
peremptory firmans to the pashas of the empire to hasten the equipment
of their contingents; and even announced his intention of repairing in
person to Crete, to share the perils and glories of the _holy war_.
Kiuprili, meanwhile, was indefatigable in his exertions to reorganize
his army, and restore his artillery to efficiency, even casting new guns
to fit the Venetian bullets, 30,000 of which are said to have been
picked up in the Turkish lines during the preceding campaign! A strict
blockade was kept up on the city, while the Venetian cruisers, and the
Papal galleys under Rospigliosi, the nephew of Pope Clement IX., were
equally vigilant in preventing supplies from reaching the besiegers by
sea; and various maritime encounters took place, generally to the
advantage of the flag of St Mark. The unworthy jealousy[19] entertained
by Morosini of Di Villa, led, however, early in the spring of 1668, to
the withdrawal of that gallant soldier from his command, in which he was
succeeded by the Marquis Montbrun St Andre, a French volunteer, inferior
neither in valour nor diligence to his predecessor.

[18] The majority of these volunteers were supplied by the fiery
noblesse of France, among whom the crusading spirit of their
ancestors seems to have been revived at this period. At the
battle of St Gothard, a considerable body of French auxiliaries
was present, under the Duc de la Feuillade, (whose name was
travestied by the Turks into, _Fouladi, man of steel_;) and his
subsequent expedition to Candia, as well as the more formidable
armament