164 THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book iv.

appears to have been in the custom of having at heavyexpense whatever eminent engineer won an elevatedfame in any country in Christendom. So Grunenberg,the imperial engineer, came to Malta in 1680;and, besides his observations on the fortifications,showed the knights hoAV to construct a machine fordrying a lake, or taking out all the water from an arm

1680 ^ ie sea ’ an< ^ which, worked by only twohorses, there arose as if a mighty river rush-ing from the bottom of the waves, and was employedto draw off all the water from the dock of Bormola,and would he equally applicable to a marsh. 1

But on the 29th of April of that year, N. Cotonerwent to repose with the just, and the Prior ofBocella, a Neapolitan, Caraffa, was chosen grandmaster, and proved, even then that the servant-at-arms in the election was no vain show, but a reality;since between three candidates there was a parity ofvotes, when it was the servant-at-arms gave thecasting vote that decided the fierce struggle. 2 Andit is a remarkable proof of what was observed before,that the grand masters were never, or very rarely,of any reigning house (though there were, at alltimes, several of the younger branches of themin the order, who were often also of much per-sonal merit), that the hero of Lepanto, Don Juanof Austria, who was not only a knight professed, but1 Pozzo : par. ii. 483. 2 Id. : par. ii. 472.