an army against Curtogali, and on August 4th, 1516, they captured Bizerta,
set free a number of Christian captives, and plundered the town. But they
did not capture Curtogali, who, only five weeks after, made a daring
attempt to carry off the Pope in person from the sea-shore in the
neighbourhood of Rome. Curtogali ended his days as the Governor of Rhodes,
from which the Knights of Saint John were finally expelled by Soliman the
Magnificent on December 22nd, 1522. This was the greatest blow which the
fraternity ever received. On December 24th the Turks made a triumphal entry
into the town, and it was said that "Sultan Soliman was not insensible to
the sorrowful position of his vanquished enemies, and when he saw the
Christian Commander, Prince Philippe Villiers L'Isle Adam, he remarked: 'It
weighs upon me somewhat that I should be coming hither to chase this aged
Christian warrior from his house.'" At the beginning of the following year
the knights left the island, never to return. On the day of this desolate
embarcation the herald blew upon his trumpet the "Salute and Farewell" and
the identical instrument upon which this call was sounded is still
preserved in the armoury at Malta, to which barren island the knights were
forced to retreat.




CHAPTER III


URUJ BARBAROSSA

In the year 1457 an obscure Roumelian or Albanian renegado named Mahomedi
was banished from Constantinople by the Grand Turk; he established himself
in the island of Mitylene and there married a Christian widow named