peninsulas of Senglea and Il Borgo. Batteries were established and a
constant bombardment commenced, the main target being Fort St. Michael
at the end of Senglea, on which a converging fire was brought to bear.
Unable to bring his fleet into the Grand Harbour under the guns of St.
Angelo, Mustapha had eighty galleys dragged across the neck of Mount
Sceberras and launched on the upper waters of the Grand Harbour. This
was a blow to the besieged, as it meant an attack by sea as well as
by land, and La Valette made all the preparations possible to meet the
danger. Along the south-west side of Senglea, where the beach is low,
he constructed, with the aid of his Maltese divers, a very firm and
powerful stockade to prevent the enemy galleys from running ashore,
and he also linked up Il Borgo and Senglea with a floating bridge.

On July 15 the Turks delivered a grand assault by sea and by land. The
attack by sea, under the command of the renegade Candellissa, proved
the more formidable. At the critical moment the defenders were thrown
into confusion by an explosion on the ramparts, during which the
Turks were able to make their way through the stockade and into the
fortress, being checked with difficulty by the desperate resistance of
the garrison and finally driven out by a timely reinforcement sent
by La Valette. Ten boatloads of troops sent by Mustapha incautiously
exposed themselves to the guns of St. Angelo and were almost all sunk,
while the attack on the land side, led by Hassan, Viceroy of Algiers
and son of Khaired-Din Barbarossa, proved an utter failure.

As at the siege of Rhodes, so at Malta, a distinct part of the
fortifications had been allotted to each langue to defend. The langue
of Castile held the north-east section of Il Borgo, which was destined
to be the scene of most desperate fighting.