CHAPTER XXIX“We must endure,” the Grand Master said, “till the autumn days, when they may become weary and go.”
“Well,” Sir Oliver answered to that, “we may do no less; and, if we can, I suppose it may be enough, for the Turks do not lay siege as do those to whom a month is no loss.”
Valette agreed about that. It was plain to all. It gave distant hope, if some increase of present fear. There were signs, even now, in the Turkish lines, that they were preparing another storm. They would not rest in a passive grip of those who must get nearer with every day to when they would starve within. They came storming around the walls as having men to lose, but no time. Doing that, they gave future hope, to balance the present stress.
But the future hope must be faint, for its cause was clear. Must
