40 TI-IE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book III,

besiegers and besieged , 1 The sovereign dictatorial,position of D’Aubusson, during the war, corre-sponded with his military—and indeed after it, bythe assent of his subjects. So the supremacy of hisrule, there were none to dispute. What would havebeen his conduct in the more difficult situation ofhaving equals or superiors, is doubtful; but as theease stood, he acted a very noble part, and showedfully as varied talents as almost any one, ancient ormodern, and on a greater scale. True, little of hiswriting remains now, to justify such an encomium.But we have the voice come down to us in severalunanswerable documents. When the Turks hadnearly filled up the ditch to a level with the rave-lin, though his quick discernment suggested at oncethe proper remedy; yet, for his great modesty hecalled a council, not of the Hospitallers only, butof all of any esteem of the different nations thenin Rhodes—a crowd of the most celebrated per-sons of nearly every art and science in theChristian world; practical veterans from everynation in Europe, several of them volunteers, manymerchants, from all parts of the civilised globe—men of eminent talents, inventions, dexterity, ge-nius, all intensely applied to defend the city, which1 Bosio: par. ii., lib. xi., anno 1479.