Page 341 - A Knight of the White Cross

among the Turks, who were already in full retreat. The defenders of St.
Nicholas, reanimated by the sight of the discomfiture of the Turkish fleet,

with a loud shout rushed down from the spot which they had held for so
many hours, drove their assailants before them, and flung themselves upon

the crowd assembled at the foot of the breach.

These had already suffered terribly from the fire of the batteries. Again and

again they had striven to storm the mound of rubbish, and had each time
been repulsed, with the loss of their bravest leaders. Seeing themselves

abandoned by the ships, a panic seized them, and as the knights rushed
down upon them they relinquished all thoughts of resistance, and dashed
into the shallow water. Many were drowned in the attempt to swim across

the deep channel in the middle, some succeeded, while others made their
escape in the boats in which they had been brought ashore from the ships.

The struggle was over. The two galleys made for the breach, and the
knights leapt out as soon as the boats grounded, and, wading ashore, joined

the group that had so long and gallantly sustained the unequal fight.
Fatigue, exhaustion, and wounds, were forgotten in the triumph of the

moment, and they crowded round the grand master and Caretto, to whose
joint exertions the success of the defence was so largely due.

"Do not thank me, comrades," D'Aubusson said. "No man has today fought
better than the rest. Every knight has shown himself worthy of the fame of

our Order. The meed of praise for our success is first due to Sir Gervaise
Tresham. At the moment when I began to doubt whether we could much
longer withstand the swarms of fresh foes who continued to pour against

us, while we were overcome by heat and labour, Sir Gervaise, who had
throughout been fighting at my side, offered to swim into the port, to fit out

a dozen of the merchant craft there as fire ships, and to tow them round into
the midst of the Turkish vessels behind the two galleys that were lying
ready for service. I remembered how he had before destroyed the corsair

fleet at Sardinia with fire ships, and the proposal seemed to me as an
inspiration sent from Heaven, at this moment of our great peril. I wrote him

an order, giving him full authority to act in my name, and in a time that
seemed to me incredibly short I saw him round the point with the fire ships