Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/369

CHAPTER XIV.

1521—1522.

Election of L’Isle Adam—Fall of Belgrade—Correspondence with Solyman—Preparations for defence-Detail of the Turkish forces—Arrival of the Ottoman army at Rhodes—Commencement of the siege—Plot by a female slave within the city—Detail of Turkish artillery—Construction of cavaliers—Mining operations—Asaault on the tower of St. Mary— Repeated attacks and their repulse—Accusations against the chancellor D’Amaral—His trial and execution—Devotion of the R]iodian women—Negotiations for surrender—Terms offered by Solyman—Their acceptance, and close of the siege by the surrender of the island.

On the death of Carretto, as recorded in Chapter XII., a warm contest ensued for the election of his successor, the names of three candidates having been brought forward by their respective partisans. One of these was Andrew D’Amaral, or, as he was sometimes called, Del Miral, who was at the time the chancellor of the Order. His arrogance and haughty temper had, however, created him too many enemies to render his success in the slightest degree probable. The weight of the struggle lay, therefore, between the other two candidates, Thomas Docwra, or Docray, the grand-prior of England, and Philip Villiers de L’Isle Adam, grand-prior of France. Docray was a man whose experience in diplomacy had rendered his name celebrated amongst the fraternity. He was, moreover, in the possession of a magnificent private fortune, a fact which added greatly to the weight of his claims; but as the whole of the French interest was centred in L’Isle Adam, and as that interest was overpoweringly great, the vote was decided against Docray, and L’Isle Adam was proclaimed the forty-second Grand-Master.

Docray was among the first to offer his warm cougratulations to his successful rival, all the more sincere possibly, as the