Vertot, in his History of the Knights of Malta, relates a striking anecdote of similar courage and devotion. “When the Turks besieged that island in 1565, John de la Valette being then Grand Master, they first attacked the castle of St. Elmo, an outpost too small and too distant from the main works to hold out long against their continual assaults. The knights who were quartered there made a gallant resistance, but their cannon being dismounted, their defences breached, and their numbers thinned, they sent a deputation to the Grand Master to represent the deplorable condition of the place, that it was no longer tenable, and that sending over reinforcements to them was worse than useless, because it insensibly consumed the troops necessary for the defence of the island. Most of the Grand Crosses, who composed the council of the Order, coincided with these views, but the Grand Master was of a contrary opinion. He agreed, indeed, that the fort was not tenable, and owned that he could not but lament the fate of the knights who in so dangerous a post were exposed to daily death; but he insisted that there are some circumstances in which it is necessary to hazard some of the limbs to save the body. The Viceroy of Sicily, to whom they looked for relief, had declared, that if that fort were lost he would not attempt to save the island. The whole safety of Malta, therefore, depended on the length of the siege, and it was absolutely necessary to protract it as long as possible. The Council came over to his opinion, and with their concurrence he impressed on the garrison that the preservation or loss of the island, and, perhaps, of the Order itself, depended on the time that they should hold out the place, and bade them call to mind the vows they had made at their profession, and that they were obliged to sacrifice their lives for the defence of the Order. Finally, he would not fail to send such reinforcements as the smallness of the fort would admit of, and, if necessary, would throw himself into the place, and there die with them.”