CHAP. III.] ST. JOHN OT JERUSALEM. 103

went back next morning to his former camp, wherehe found Piali had pitched his own tent, exactlyfacing the post of Auvergne. 1

On the 4th of September appeared Toledo’s fleetoff Gozo, and began landing his troops on theisland of Malta. 2 Yet had that beginning but adelusive aspect to the Christians; who considered itlittle better than idle talk, when he sailed, theythought, back to Sicily. However, even hisappearance had been favourable to us in this, thatit forced Mustapha to give up the assault generalhe had projected, on the basis of the unwillingnessof the Turks to winter in Malta; it cowing them tothat degree, that they allowed a small party toventure a sortie, and burn the principal of theirbesieging machines. Yet replete with persuasion,that his return to Constantinople without havingtaken Malta, would incur his master’s mercilessindignation, he rather than face the likes, preferredany other imminent and manifest danger ofperishing where he was.

Not so the other pasha, who desired ardently toget back with the fleet whole and healthy, 3 believingSolyman a reasonable man, who as a statesman

1 Bosio : par. iii., lib. xsxii. 684.

2 Id. : id., id. 685.

3 Id.: id., id. 687.