one side and the Grand Harbour on the other. The difficulty of moving
about in this hilly town is commemorated in Byron's lines:

Adieu, ye joys of La Valette,
Adieu, sirocco, sun, and sweat,
Adieu, ye cursed streets of stairs,
How surely he who mounts you swears.

Each Grand Master strove to enlarge and strengthen the town's
fortifications, with the result that, in the eighteenth century,
Valetta was recognised as one of the greatest fortresses in the world.
The building and upkeep of these fortifications proved a great drain
upon the resources of the Order, and served but little purpose, except
that of ministering to the vanity of successive Grand Masters, who
desired to leave behind them memorials of themselves by bestowing
their name upon a new fort or outwork. The continual increase of
security and strength did not serve to improve the daring of the
Knights, but rather helped to engender a condition of sloth that was
destined to prove fatal.

This period is marked by constant tumults among the members of the
Order and by acts of defiance against the Grand Masters. Even in the
days of its glory there had been much jealousy and friction between
the different nationalities composing the Order. The three French
langues of Provence, Auvergne, and France, by acting together,
exercised a preponderant influence; they contributed half the revenues
of the Order, and were generally able to secure their object against
the opposition of the remaining Knights. The constant wars between
Spain and France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries led to
constant troubles at Malta, and the Grand Masters throughout this