rder were killed or made prisoners on this
disastrous day, and so intense was the indignation in Malta, that the
Grand Master had much ado to save Saint-Clement from being lynched by
the mob, and was obliged to deliver him up to the secular court, which
at once condemned him to death. He was strangled in his cell, and his
body thrown in a sack into the sea. Such a success went far to atone
for Mustafa Pasha's unfortunate siege.

A far more important triumph awaited the Turks in 1570-1:--a siege,
and a conquest. The new Sultan, like his father, saw in the island of
Cyprus a standing affront to his authority in the Levant. Then, as
now, Cyprus was a vital centre in all maritime wars in the Eastern
Mediterranean; a convenient depot for troops and stores; a watch-tower
whence the movements of the Turkish fleet could be observed; a refuge
for the numberless Christian Corsairs that infested the coast of
Syria. Cyprus belonged to Venice, and on the score of her protection
of piracy the Sultan found no difficulty in picking a quarrel with the
Senate. War was declared, and Pi[=a]li Pasha transported a large army
under Lala Mustafa (not the Seraskier who commanded at Malta) to lay
siege to Nicosia, the capital of the island. After forty-eight days,
the city fell, September 9th, and became a shambles. The catastrophe
might have been averted, had the Christian fleet owned a single
competent chief; but unhappily the relief of Cyprus was entrusted to
the least trustworthy of all instruments--a coalition.

Pope Pius V., a man of austere piety, full of the zeal of his high
office, and in energy and intellect a born leader, spared no effort to
support the Venetians as soon as war became inevitable. Few of the
states of Europe found it convenient to respond to his appeal, but
Philip of Spain sent a numerous fleet under Giovanni Andrea Doria, and
the Pope himself, aided in some degree by the Italian princes, added
an important contingent, which he confided to the care of the Grand
Constable of Naples, Mark Antony Colonna. Giovanni Zanne commanded the
Venetian fleet. The whole force, when united, amounted to no less than
two hundred and six vessels, of which eleven were galleasses, and
nearly all the rest galleys; while the soldiers and crews numbered
forty-eight thousand men. So dire was the dread then inspired by the
Turks that this vast armament dared not move till it was known that
Ochiali had left the neighbourhood of Italy, and even