who then bowed
him out. Turning to the Knights Grand Cross he said with a sneer, "Either
this Frenchman is the dupe of the Constable or he wishes to make us his."
He then proceeded to give at length the reasons why Soliman would not
direct so huge an expedition against "the Religion." Many of the Knights
dissented vehemently from his conclusions, but D'Omedes refused to listen
to their arguments. Even advices which arrived on July 13th, representing
that the armada was moving southwards devastating the Italian ports, did
not move him from his obstinate pre-occupation; till on July 16th the
arrival of the Ottoman fleet put an end to all speculation.

The armada which had sailed from Constantinople was under the command of
Sinan Basha: but he had explicit orders that he was to take no important
step without first consulting Dragut, who was nominally his lieutenant. It
was well for the Knights that on this occasion the corsair was not in
supreme command; had this been the case the islands must have been taken,
as no preparations had been made to repulse an attack in force, and Juan
D'Omedes was a Grand Master who excited little enthusiasm either among the
Knights or the inhabitants. The choice of Sinan was not one which did great
credit to the penetration of the Sultan. Let us explain. We are all of us
conscious at one time or another of a desire to express some fact in the
fewest possible words; to place the transaction or the circumstance which
we wish to describe in the searchlight of truth in so undeniable a fashion
that the illumination consequent upon this mental effort of our own shall
throw up our meaning in immediate relief on the intelligences of those whom
we address. This attribute is possessed by but few even among great
writers--indeed, some historic sayings which have come down to us have not
emanated from the writing fraternity at all, but from soldiers, sailors,
statesmen, and other busy men of affairs. The quality which distinguishes a
man of action above all others is fearlessness of responsibility; the
possession of sufficient greatness of soul and of moral fibre to seize upon
an opportunity and to make the most thereof when an occasion arises which
has not been foreseen by those in authority over him. But far more often in
the history of the world has it happened that brave and capable leaders
have failed for the lack of the indefinable quality that separated their
sterling merits from that absolute and