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discovery, their tone would have been sadder yet-their

brows more grave.

They had been, however, too long accustomed to a monopoly of the Indian trade, and were too much attached to the wealth and power which it had brought them, to yield the ground without a struggle. As they had no means of effectually competing with the Portuguese, they exerted all their influence to delay the progress of their new rivals, and even descended to acts which were considered impious in those days, and appear cold-blooded in ours. They leagued with the enemies of their faith, the Mamelukes, to destroy the Portuguese in their voyages to and fro; and as their Soldan had a great interest in maintaining the former state of things, he wanted little persuasion to attack intruders, who were wresting his gains from his hands. Venice went so far as to supply the Mamelukes with timber from their Dalmatian forests to furnish forth a fleet, with which, when ready, the Portuguese were fiercely assailed. All was in vain: the squadron, after various successes, was entirely ruined; and although the fall of the Mameluke dominion, and its subjection to the Turks under Selim the First, wrought no change in the position and objects of Venice, inasmuch as she still operated with the conquerors in trying to ruin the new trade with India, no efforts could now avail. The Portuguese boldly pursued the path they had struck out, and the stream of commerce and wealth poured direct into the ports and countries on the Ocean.

CHAPTER XII.

Venice-League of Cambray-Ottomans and Venetians-The Turks wrest Cyprus from Venice-Vessels most in use in the Mediterranean-Battle of Lepanto-Venice in the Seventeenth

Century.

ALTHOUGH it was the policy of the Venetians to avoid coming into contact with the powers on the mainland, their possessions had of late so widely extended over the Peninsula, that it became very difficult to avoid doing so. Masters of half of Lombardy, surrounded by ambitious neighbours,-with France, Spain, and Germany striving by all the arts of finesse and war to establish a footing in Italy,—their position became one of extreme difficulty; and by a league, concluded at Cambray in 1508, between Maximilian I., Ferdinand the Catholic, and Louis XII., the avowed object of which was to repress the ambitious policy of the Venetian Republic, it seemed at one time that her existence was drawing to an end. Nevertheless, the storm blew over; she succeeded in dissolving the league, and shortly after united with the Pope and Spain against the French. The events of this stirring period it is not our province to describe; they belong to the general history of Italy and to the career of that wonderful man, Charles V. of Spain, whose influence in the south

The Knights of St. John.

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of Europe became shortly after paramount. It is sufficient for our narrative to state that the Venetians were again and again, as in the instance alluded to above, threatened with subversion, yet made a brave stand against their numerous and powerful enemies, and succeeded in retaining their independence; although, it is true, with the loss of all those possessions on the continent which it had cost them so much treasure and diplomacy to gain.

The Turks, on the other hand, were constantly harassing them at sea. Having, during the reign of Bajazet II., defeated the Venetians in a naval contest, and won from them the fortress of Lepanto, they became bolder in their attacks, and pursued the Christians in their own waters. For the space of fifty years had the arms of the Ottomans, by sea and land, been the terror of Europe and Asia, when, in 1519, Solyman II., called the Magnificent, succeeded to the throne. Having considerably enlarged the boundaries of his empire. by the taking of Belgrade, the victorious arms of the Turk were next turned against Rhodes, to which island. had retired the Knights of St. John, whose exploits were so remarkable in Palestine during the Crusades. Although the Sultan's force amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand men, and the Order had not more than seven thousand troops to oppose to them, yet, commanded by their grand-master, Philip de Villiers. Lisle Adam, they made a gallant resistance. Their city was reduced to ashes, and the brave knights were compelled to yield; but they obtained honourable terms from their conquerors, and embarked with their remaining treasures for Malta, where they erected new homes, A.D. 1522.

In order that his sea-service might partake of the vigour which distinguished his military proceedings, Solyman made the celebrated Barbarossa Capitan Pasha of the Ottoman empire-a choice afterwards fatal to the peace of the Mediterranean; as that daring chief succeeded, by his elevation, in founding the maritime power of the piratical states of Barbary, which thence became so distinguished for lawlessness and ferocity. This commander proved a terrible scourge to Venice. Despatched against the Republic, he reduced the island. of Scio, and several others of the Cyclades; he captured Scyros, and made himself master of part of Candia; and only granted peace on the cession of a portion of the Morea.

Scarcely had the Knights of St. John re-established themselves in their retreat at Malta, when, still pursued by the enmity of Solyman, siege was laid to the island. For five months did hostilities continue; but, more fortunate than at Rhodes, they withstood the Ottoman arms-and, being succoured by the viceroy of Sicily, compelled the Turks to withdraw, with a loss of twentyfour thousand men.

The death of this energetic Sultan made a great change in the aspect of Ottoman affairs; and from that time the power of the Turks began visibly to decline. Their hatred to the Christians remained the same: this feeling still prompted them to destroy the followers of the Cross whenever opportunity was offered for hostilities; but no Sultan, after Solyman, ascended the throne with judgment sufficient to consolidate his conquests, and the vast empire he had marked out for his successors crumbled piecemeal away.

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The decline, however, of the Ottoman power was not so rapid but that it continued for long years a Scourge to the neighbouring states. In a projected attack on Persia, the Turks, for the first time, came into collision with Russia, and the loss which they sustained proved the commencement of a series of sanguinary engagements between the two peoples, which have been resumed at longer or shorter intervals down to the present time. They were more fortunate in an attack on Cyprus in 1570; for in spite of an obstinate resistance offered by the Venetians, the different garrisons were overwhelmed by numbers, and the crescent shortly replaced the cross on every fortress in the island. Intelligence of this disaster not only excited the highest indignation in Venice, but was heard with no little alarm by the other powers of Christendom. The Pope considered it incumbent on the Church to make common cause with the Adriatic Republic, and Austria and Spain joined the alliance. In order to resist this formidable confederacy, the Turks exerted themselves strenuously to augment the numbers and efficiency of their vessels, and when their fleet was mustered, it amounted to two hundred galleys, and sixty-six brigantines. The preparations on the Christian side were no less energetic; some months were spent in fitting out the armament, which, when ready, sailed southwards, with Don John of Austria as commander of the expedition.

Although ship-building had at this period, 1571, made some progress in various parts of Europe, particularly in the countries bordering on the great ocean, galleys and galliots (galere e galeotte) were the favourite

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