y. From 1779 to 1782 France and Spain exhausted all
their resources in a three-years' siege, which is one of the most
remarkable episodes in military history. By sea and by land, by blockade,
by bombardment, by assault, was it pressed. But the tenacity of England
was more than a match for the fire and pride of France and Spain, and it
ended in signal and disastrous failure.

Glance for a moment at the history of the seizure of Malta. For
generations the value of this citadel had been known. All the strong
nations of Europe had looked with covetous eyes upon it. But it was a
difficult thing to find any pretext for its capture. It was held by the
Knights of St. John, the decrepit remnant of an order whose heroism had
many times been the shield of Christendom against the Turk, and whose
praise had once filled the whole earth. They were now as inoffensive as
they were incapable. Their helplessness was their true defence,--and the
memory of their good deeds. At last, in 1798, Napoleon, on his way to
Egypt, partly by force and partly by treaty, obtained possession of it. So
strong were its fortresses, that he himself acknowledged that the knights
needed only to have shut their gates against him to have baffled him. Two
years after, the English, watching their time, by blockade, starved out
the French garrison. Its new owners held it with their usual
determination. Rather than surrender it,--though they had made
treaty-stipulations to that effect,--they deliberately entered upon a
ten-years' war with France. The indignation which Napoleon felt, and the
language which he used, show that he knew the value of the prize for which
he was struggling. "I would rather," said he, "see you in possession of
Montmartre than in possession of Malta." "Malta gives the dominion of the
Mediterranean; I thus lose the most important sea in the world, and the
respect of Europe. Let the English obtain a port to put into; to that I
have no objection; but I am determined that they shall not have two
Gibraltars in one sea,--one at the entrance, and one in the middle."
Nevertheless he was forced to yield to destiny stronger than his own iron
will. Eleven years more found him in sad exile, and the British flag still
waving over the Valetta.

Nothing better illustrates the firmness with which England holds her
purpose than the fate of Aden. This is the halfway station between England
and her East Indian possessions. It commands the Red Sea. It is the be