mong
the vows of the Knights was a most significant one, namely, "never to
reckon the number of an enemy." Vast superiority of numbers, however,
told at last, for the besieged were utterly worn out. Quarter was
neither asked nor given by either side; but when the combatants met,
they fought to the last gasp. It was a war of extermination on the part
of both Christians and Turks. The latter, being really the weaker party,
went down by hundreds.

Including the killed and severely wounded, together with those who died
of fever and various diseases incident to camp life, it is
authoritatively stated that the Turks lost one hundred and sixty
thousand men in the six months' siege of Rhodes, showing a dogged
persistency which was probably never surpassed, if it has been equaled,
in warfare. It should be remembered that the enormous host of the
Ottomans was opposed by only about five or six thousand men, who,
however, mostly fought from behind protecting stone walls.

In order to show the spirit which actuated the Knights, and their
unscrupulous mode of warfare, we will relate a well-authenticated
instance connected with this remarkable siege.

One of the famous fighters in the ranks of the Order of St. John was a
Frenchman who bore the name of Fornonius, who is declared to have killed
over six hundred of the enemy during the six months' contest! His
prowess was not only marvelous in the open field and upon the ramparts
when engaged in repelling an assault, but he would lie in wait, like a
hunter of wild beasts, for hours together, to obtain the chance of
killing a Mussulman. When a sortie was made against the besiegers,
Fornonius was always found in the van, rushing among the enemy, and with
one terrible sweeping reach of his keen-edged battle-axe, he would sever
three or four heads from their bodies, keeping up a shower of these
frightful blows, aimed right and left, until the astonished Ottomans,
notwithstanding their usually reckless bravery, fled in utter dismay
before what seemed to them a superhuman power. Even his comrades
believed that he bore a charmed life; for, although he received many
slight wounds, he was never touched in a vital part, and he boasted that
he had not been out of "fighting trim" during the whole of that long
siege, night or day. His example was in a degree contagious, and the
Knights, thoroughly trained to the use of arms, vied with each other in
their murderous efforts against the common enemy.