TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have been placed at the end of the book. Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book. KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN: BATTLE OF LEPANTO AND SIEGE OF VIENNA [Illustration: SIEGE OF RHODES.] LONDON: BURNS & OATES, LIMITED. NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO: BENZIGER BROTHERS. PREFACE. In this little volume it has not been attempted to give a complete history of the Order of Knights Hospitallers, even from the comparatively late date from which the narrative begins; nor, indeed, has it been thought necessary, in a publication of such slight pretensions, to enter into a full and detailed description of the several great sieges around which the chief interest of the story gathers. All that the writer has endeavoured to do is, to present the reader with as vivid a picture of events so memorable in the annals of the world as could be conveyed in a rapid and inelaborate sketch. Other incidents and circumstances having an important bearing on the general contest between the Moslem and the Christian have been interwoven with the staple of the narrative, either for the purpose of linking together the principal facts, or of giving them that position and prominence which belongs to them. The determined courage and heroic devotion of the Knights of St. John have commanded the admiration of every noble and generous mind, whatever may have been its religious convictions or prejudices. At Acre, at Smyrna, at Rhodes, and lastly at Malta, these brave champions of the faith occupied what for the time being was the outpost of Christendom. At times almost annihilated, they rose again before the eyes of their enemies with more than recovered strength; abandoned, or but tardily and grudgingly succoured by the powers of Europe,—who were too much engaged with their own political quarrels, and too deeply absorbed by their own selfish and immediate interests, to look to the future or unite against the common foe,—they confronted single-handed the enormous hosts of the infidels in their descents upon Europe, arrested their triumphant march towards the West, retreated from one position only to rally in another, and renew a contest which in appearance was hopeless; and at length, when all seemed lost, by sheer fortitude and perseverance they baffled and beat back the barbarian invader in the very pride of his strength, so that he never dared to approach their stronghold again.