The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-02-01

age to send him and his army to the bot
tom. His one and only chance Of sue
cess in all those weeks was to keep out of
sight.
| Fortunately for him the enemy did not
know where he was going or what course
he was taking. While Nelson was flying
| up and down the European Coast. on the
| assumption that he was headed for Ma
pies or Sicily, Napoleon was steering to-
ward the African shore. passing outside OF
| Corsica. Sardinia and Sicily and making
for Malta. whose outlying island of Gazo
rose to view after sail of nearly three
| weeks.
Taking Malta.
In the dusk of a June evening the
French feet came to anchor within gun
| shot of the great gray heap of masonry
which the Knights Of ST. John had piled
up for the defense of Malta against the
Turks. These last OF the Crusaders. after
| having been driven from Jerusalem to the
rock of Acre and from Acre to the Island
of Rhodes. had found refuge from the
Saracens behind the bastions of this oar
rem island.
| From the battIements of ST. Elmo the
eight pointed cross had waved defiance
at the crescent in stubborn and disas-
trous sieges- Challenged now by a ma
| ton Of the West. which had torn down
the crucifiX from its churches and did
not hold itself bound by the agreements
| of Christendom to respect this outpost
of the Christian world. those soldiers of
the Maltese cross. who had followed II
for nearly 500 years, furled their banner
before Napoleon and gave him the keys
| of Malta.
Climbing the steep steps to the town.
| he recognized the community with his
usual rapidity. Pensioning the knights,
setting free their Moslem slaves, estab-
fishing new government with modern
laws, ordering the Improvement of streets
and the erection OF fountains, introduce
| ing a system of common schools and
/ even prescribing a course of studies.
remodelling the curriculum of the uni
yersity and installing French garrison,
he sailed away in less than a week with
all the cannon and powder he cared to
| take and all the gold and silver orna-
ments which generations of knights had
accumulated in the treasury Of the
order.
Hide and Seek.
AS Napoleon entered the Ionian Sea
| from the Malta Channel, Nelson raced
! in on the more northerIy course. Both
| were now heading straight for Alexan-
dria, for the admiral at last had sus-
pected that the French were going to
Egypt. Ono day there was nothing but
the horizon and sixty miles Of water be-
tween them. That night. indeed a moon
less night. Nelson probably ran through
/ the. feet without seeing It. With the
! fmpetuosity of despair. the Briton flew
on the wind so fast that he sailed past
the huge, slowgoing armada and hauled
up at Alexandria The Egyptians
thought their strange visitor was crazy
or concealing some design of his own
upon them when he inquired if they
had seen a few hundred French ships
floating about theft shore. They told
him no and they told him to go away,
even refusing him permission to take
water.
When he flew OF toward the Syrian
coast ON his wild hunt the shiek and
the wise men of Alexandria. congratu-
lated one another on having frightened
him away. But Nelson had been gone
only two days when one morning they
saw the sea white with the sails Of
France, as the English admiral had
been forty-eight hours too early for him
at Alexandria, and the long voyage was
finished in safety.
The shiek told the French rs he had
told the English. to go away. but Napo-
leon did not go. For he was in the port
of his ambition. within few pulls of
the oar from the cradle CT empire and
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