"It isn't a ruin yet, young man," said the ensign, taking off his cap to enjoy the breeze, "and the _Osprey's_ rifled four-inch would have to toss a good many shot up here to produce road material, I can tell you. But three hundred-and-odd years ago--in 1565, to be exact--this old fort held off a big fleet and land force for four months. The Knights of St. John defended it in great style. Sultan Solyman, who had driven the Knights from Rhodes thirty-four years before, made up his mind that Malta was too good for them. He brought about a hundred and forty vessels and an army of thirty-odd thousand men, to give them a thorough-going house-warming. "Were there any cats--" began Starr; but the lecturer proceeded without noticing the interruption. "These forces were reinforced, if I remember rightly"--(Cries of "Oh, you do! you _do_!" from the audience)--"were afterwards increased by a lot of corsairs from Algiers and pirates from Tripoli. When the fort seemed on the point of breaking up, after four months' battering, the few Knights that were left entered that little chapel over there, received the rites of the Church--the _viaticum_--and went out to start on their last journey. They were cut to pieces by the Turks; but two outworks still resisted and fought off the besiegers until help arrived from Sicily. Out of eight or nine thousand defenders, only six hundred were left to join in the _Te Deum_ (you know the Knights were a religious order) as the Turks sailed off." "O my, look at this!" Starr suddenly broke in. "Isn't she a dear!" The officers looked up and saw an extremely pretty girl approaching, attended by a maid. "What on earth is that thing on her head?" queried Dobson under his breath. "It looks like a stu'n'sail!" "It's a _faldetta_," said Liddon. "Most of the ladies, the natives, I mean, wear them." The young men rose from their seats on the bastion, and raised their hats as the girl passed. She flushed and bowed, then looked down demurely, and hurried on. "What language do they speak?" demanded Bob, hastily. "If I only knew, I could ask her about Maltese----" "Don't get agitated, my son," said Liddon, calmly, "and don't address any young ladies without an introduction. As for their language, it's a mixture of Portuguese and Arabic----" "That'll do," groaned Bob, with a heavy sigh. "There's no danger of my breaking out in her native tongue. What's next on the programme?" "Well, we'll take a stroll through the principal street and visit the Church of St. John, which was built by the Knights a few years after the siege."