ly
landed his men at his convenience from the Marsa Muset, and laid out
his earthworks on the land side of St. Elmo. He had not long begun
when Ochiali arrived with six galleys from Alexandria, and on June 2nd
came Dragut himself with a score or more galleys of Tripoli and Bona.
Dragut saw at once the mistake that had been made, but saw also that
to abandon the siege of St. Elmo would too greatly elate the Knights:
the work must go on; and on it went with unexampled zeal.

The little fort could hold but a small garrison, but the force was a
_corps d'elite_: De Broglio of Piedmont commanded it with sixty
soldiers, and was supported by Juan de Guaras, bailiff of the
Negropont, a splendid old Knight, followed by sixty more of the
Order, and some Spaniards under Juan de la Cerda:--a few hundred of
men to meet thirty thousand Turks, but men of no common mettle. They
had not long to wait. The fire opened from twenty-one guns on the last
day of May and continued with little intermission till June 23rd. The
besiegers were confident of battering down the little fort in a week
at most, but they did not know their foes. As soon as one wall
crumbled before the cannonade, a new work appeared behind it. The
first assault lasted three hours, and the Turks gained possession of
the ravelin in front of the gate; so furious was the onset that the
defenders sent to the Grand Master to tell him the position was
untenable; they could not stand a second storming party. La Valette
replied that, if so, he would come and withstand it himself: St. Elmo
must be held to keep the Turks back till reinforcements arrived. So of
course they went on. Dragut brought up some of his largest yards and
laid them like a bridge across the fosse, and a tremendous struggle
raged for five terrible hours on Dragut's bridge. Again and again
Mustafa marshalled his Janissaries for the attack, and every time they
were hurled back with deadly slaughter. As many as four thousand Turks
fell in a single assault. St. Elmo was little more than a heap of
ruins, but the garrison still stood undaunted among the heaps of
stones, each man ready to sell his life dearly for the honour of Our
Lady and St. John.

The Turks at last remedied the mistake they had made at the beginning.
They had left the communication between St. Elmo and the harbour
unimpeded, and reinforcements had frequently been introduced into the
besieged fortress from the Burg. On June 17th the line of
circumva