La Valette, we are told, subsequently complained of the viceroy's conduct to Pius the Fifth; and that pontiff represented the affair to the king of Spain. Don Garcia had, soon after, the royal permission to retire from the government of Sicily. He withdrew to the kingdom of Naples, where he passed the remainder of his days, without public employment of any kind, and died in obscurity.[1389]—Such a fate may not be thought, after all, conclusive evidence that he had not acted in obedience to the private instructions of his sovereign.
SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF LA VALETTE.
The reader, who has followed La Valette through the siege of Malta, may perhaps feel some curiosity to learn the fate of this remarkable man.—The discomfiture of the Turks caused a great sensation throughout Europe. In Rome the tidings were announced by the discharge of cannon, illuminations,[{453}] and bonfires. The places of public business were closed. The shops were shut. The only places opened were the churches; and thither persons of every rank—the pope, the cardinals, and the people—thronged in procession, and joined in public thanksgiving for the auspicious event. The rejoicing was great all along the shores of the Mediterranean, where the inhabitants had so severely suffered from the ravages of the Turks. The name of La Valette was on every tongue, as that of the true champion of the cross. Crowned heads vied with one another in the honors and compliments which they paid him. The king of Spain sent him a present of a sword and poniard, the handles of which were of gold superbly mounted with diamonds. The envoy, who delivered these in presence of the assembled knights, accompanied the gift with a pompous eulogy on La Valette himself, whom he pronounced the greatest captain of the age, beseeching him to continue to employ his sword in defence of Christendom. Pius the Fifth sent him—what, considering the grand-master's position, may be thought a singular compliment—a cardinal's hat. La Valette, however, declined it, on the ground that his duties as a cardinal would interfere with those which devolved on him as head of the order. Some referred his refusal to modesty; others, with probably quite as much reason, to his unwillingness to compromise his present dignity by accepting a subordinate station.[1390]
But La Valette had no time to dally with idle compliments and honors. His little domain lay in ruins around him; and his chief thought now was how to restore its fortunes. The first year after the siege, the knights had good reason to fear a new invasion of the Moslems; and Philip quartered a garrison of near fifteen thousand troops in the island for its protection.[1391] But Solyman fortunately turned his arms against a nearer enemy, and died in the course of the same year, while carrying on the war against Hungary.[1392] Selim, his successor, found another direction for his ambition. Thus relieved of his enemies, the grand-master was enabled to devote all his energies to the great work of rebuilding his fallen capital, and placing the island in a more perfect state of defence than it had ever been. He determined on transferring the residence of the order to the high land of Mount Sceberras, which divides the two harbors, and which would give him the command of both. His quick eye readily discerned those advantages of the position, which time has since fully proved. Here he resolved to build his capital, to surround it with fortifications, and, at the same time, to enlarge and strengthen those of St. Elmo.
But his treasury was low. He prepared a plan of his improvements, which he sent to the different European princes, requesting their coöperation, and urging the importance to them all of maintaining Malta as the best bulwark against the infidel. His plan met with general approbation. Most of the sovereigns responded to his appeal by liberal contributions,—and among them the French king; notwithstanding his friendly relations with the sultan.[{454}] To these funds the members of the order freely added whatever each could raise by his own credit. This amount was still further swelled by the proceeds of prizes brought into port by the Maltese cruisers,—an inexhaustible source of revenue.
Funds being thus provided, the work went forward apace. On the twenty-eighth of March, 1566, the grand-master, clad in his robes of ceremony, and in the presence of a vast concourse of knights and inhabitants, laid the first stone of the new capital. It was carved with his own arms; and a Latin inscription recorded the name of "Valetta," which the city was to bear in honor of its founder.[1393] More than eight thousand men were employed on the work; and a bull of Pius the Fifth enjoined that their labors should not be suspended on fête-days.[1394] It seemed to be regarded as a Christian duty to provide for the restoration of Malta.[1395] La Valette superintended the operations in person. He was ever to be seen on the spot, among the workmen. There he took his meals, discussed affairs of state with his council, and even gave audience to envoys from abroad.[1396]
In the midst of these quiet occupations, there were some occurrences which distracted the attention, and greatly disturbed the tranquillity, of La Valette. One of these was the disorderly conduct of some of the younger knights. Another was a dispute in which he was involved with the pope, who, in the usual encroaching spirit of the Vatican, had appropriated to himself the nomination to certain benefices belonging to the order.
SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF LA VALETTE.
These unpleasant affairs weighed heavily on the grand-master's mind; and he often sought to relieve his spirits by the diversion of hawking, of which he was extremely fond. While engaged in this sport, on a hot day in July, he received a stroke of the sun. He was immediately taken to Il Borgo. A fever set in; and it soon became apparent that his frame, enfeebled by his unparalleled fatigues and hardships, was rapidly sinking under it. Before dying, he called around his bed some of the brethren to whom the management of affairs was chiefly committed, and gave them his counsel in respect to the best method of carrying out his plans. He especially enjoined on them to maintain a spirit of unity among themselves, if they would restore the order to its ancient prosperity and grandeur. By his testament, he liberated his slaves, some fifty in number; and he obtained the consent of his brethren to bequeath a sum sufficient to endow a chapel he had built in Valetta, to commemorate his victory over the infidels. It was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin; and in this chapel he desired that his body might be laid. Having[{455}] completed these arrangements, he expired on the twenty-first of August, 1568.
La Valette's dying commands were punctually executed by his brethren. The coffin inclosing his remains was placed on board of the admiral's galley, which, with four others that escorted it, was shrouded in black. They bore the household of the deceased, and the members of the order. The banners taken by him in battle with the Moslems were suspended from the sterns of the vessels, and trailed through the water. The procession, on landing, took its way through the streets of the embryo capital, where the sounds of labor were now hushed, to the chapel of Our Lady of Victory. The funeral obsequies were there performed with all solemnity; and the remains of the hero were consigned to the tomb, amidst the tears of the multitude, who had gathered from all parts of the island, to pay this sad tribute of respect to his memory.[1397]