CHAP. IV.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

147

general of the army and fortresses of Malta, duringthe siege, with the order’s marshal second in com-mand, but superior to all except the said viscount,is dated May 27th, 1645. 1 It certainly causedsorrow, quite the contrary of satisfaction, at Malta,when they heard the Turkish fleet had sailed againstCandia instead; so prepared were the knights,and so confidant of victory. 2 Truth is the Candianwar is as much of Malta itself, as of Yenice; andso the knights always considered it. Therefore ifthey were the primary cause of it, it is only fair.Nor does Yenice disagree, however dear to her—and with good reason—be the glories she earnedat Candia, as will be fully proved by the documentsto be cited. Yet what seemed must have ^blown over, since no document of impor-tance till ten years later. In 1656 is a letter fromthe Doge of Yenice, Bertuccio Valerio, to the GrandMaster Lascaris, imploring his usual aid to with-stand the fiercer than ever Turkish attacks onCandia; knowing that in the worst of peril is whenthose much noble Knights of Malta will come withtheir troops, both by sea and land, to try to winback what we have lost; not only from their own

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1 Cod. Dipl. Geros., ii., Hum. cccxlix.

2 Pozzo: Istoria, ii. 114.