Page 65 - A Knight of the White Cross

Several inlets and small bays were passed, but all were empty. A few
fishing boats lay on the shore, but there were no signs of life, as no doubt

the people would, long since, have taken alarm and sought shelter in the
woods. There was a sharp point just before they reached the southeastern

extremity of the island, and as the galley shot past this, a shout of exultation
rose from the knights, for, near the mouth of an inlet that now opened to
their view, there lay four long, low vessels, above each of which floated the

Moslem flag. A number of men were gathered on the shore near the ships,
and heavily laden boats were passing to and fro.

A yell of rage and alarm rose from the ships as the galley came into view.
There was a stir and movement on the shore, and numbers of men leapt into

the boats there, and started for the ships. These were some quarter of a mile
away when first seen, and half that distance had been traversed when a puff

of smoke shot out from the side of one of them, followed almost
immediately by a general discharge of their cannon. One ball tore along the
waist of the galley, killing six of the rowers, and several oars on both sides

were broken. Two balls passed through the cabins in the poop. But there
was no pause in the advance of the galley. The whips of the slave masters

cracked, and the rowers whose oars were intact strained at them. There was
no reply from the guns, but the knights raised loud the war cry of the Order,
a war cry that was never heard without striking a thrill of apprehension

among their Moslem foes.

As they neared the pirate ships, the helm was put down, and the galley
brought up alongside the largest of them and a broadside poured into her;
then the knights, headed by their commander, leapt on to her deck.

Although a number of the crew had not yet come off from shore, the

Moslems still outnumbered their assailants, and, knowing that their
consorts would soon come to their aid, they threw themselves in a body on
the Christians. But in a hand-to-hand conflict like this, the knights of the

Hospital were irresistible. Protected by their armour and long shields from
the blows of their enemies' scimitars and daggers, their long, cross handled

swords fell with irresistible force on turbaned head and coat-of-mail, and,
maintaining regular order and advancing like a wall of steel along the deck,