Valetta

“ Valetta harbour is in truth as lively and animated, as interesting and picturesque a sheet of water as is to be found in any part of the world. On the north side of where the ship lay were the dazzling white walls of the city towering towards the blue sky, with the Marina below them, and numerous vessels moored along the quays; on the other side the frowning batteries of Fort Saint Angelo, and the Venetian looking canal, called Dockyard Creek; many of the houses having doors cut through the rock opening down to the water, the whole wearing an aspect more Oriental than European. ”

“ The fortifications of Valetta are endless. When I first walked about them, I was struck all of a heap with their strangeness, and when I came to understand a little of their purpose, I was overwhelmed with wonder. Such vast masses—bulky mountain-breasted heights; gardens [Pg 483] with pomegranate trees—the prickly pears in the fosses, and the caper (the most beautiful of flowers) growing profusely in the interstices of the high walls and on the battlements. The Maltese are a dark, light-limbed people. Of the women five tenths are ugly ”

“ Much as I had heard of the gay singularity of the appearance of Malta, I felt surprise as well as delight at the beautiful scene around; nor was I at all prepared for the extent of the city of Valetta. The excessive whiteness of the houses, built of the rock of which the island is composed, contrasted with the vivid green of their verandahs, gives to the whole landscape the air of a painting, in which the artist has employed the most brilliant colours for sea and sky, and habitations of a sort of fairy land. ”

“ In the winter of ’53, I went from Marseilles to Civita Vecchia, in one of the magnificent P. and O. ships, the Valetta, the master of which subsequently did distinguished service in the Crimea. This was his first Mediterranean voyage, and he sailed his ship by the charts alone, going into each port as surely as any pilot. I remember walking the deck at night with this most skilful, gallant, well-bred, and well-educated gentleman, and the glow of eager enthusiasm with which he assented, when I asked him whether he did not think a ribbon or order would be welcome or useful in his service. ”

“ But come home, dearest old Lily. Gather your chicks under your wing, and when you cluck them together again, all will be well. I don’t think you will find Valetta disimproved by her crisis. It is curious to hear how she and Gillian both declare that Mysie would have prevented it, as if naughtiness or deceit shrank from that child’s very face. ”

“ He had such confidence in his position that he was determined to humiliate Valetta, Duchess of Tottenham. She was a stupid woman; she had nothing but her dignity; she should be taught that the brains of a genius were worth more than an hereditary title, however magnificent. Cunningham Black was piqued, and he had pertinacity. ”

“ If that fair Valetta, with its streets of palaces, its picturesque forts and magnificent church, only crowned some green and azure island of the Ionian Sea, Corfu for instance, I really think that the ideal of landscape would be realised.
To Ferdinand, who was inexperienced in the world, the dissipation of Malta, too, was delightful. It must be confessed that, under all circumstances, the first burst of emancipation from domestic routine hath in it something fascinating. However you may be indulged at home, it is impossible to break the chain of childish associations ”

“ Black was exasperated. "Why travel in a smoking-carriage, madam, if you object to the smell of smoke?" he asked, acidly. "The train is not full."
"I did not notice," said Valetta, and put her head a little back to stare at this impossible fellow-traveler of hers. It was a trick of hers; she had put her head back in precisely the same way when she was a spectacled school-girl of fourteen, long before she had any hope of becoming a duchess.
Black put her pose down to aristocratic intolerance. He shrugged his shoulders, looked at the ground-glass legend on the window and then at his cigar. ”

“ Mrs Valetta turned and bit at her:
“Kim and I have known each other for many years,—
“Old friends are best—
Old loves, old books, old songs.”
She broke off the quotation at that, smiling a little acrid smile. These things did not interest me in the least. I merely felt that I detested Mrs Valetta and Mrs Skeffington-Smythe, and most of all the detestable man they were squabbling so crudely about. Mrs Valetta had returned to her business of introducing to me a large queue of freshly arrived men. ”

“ Valetta (62) , a fortress city, the capital of Malta, on a promontory on the NE. coast of the island, between two bays; the streets are steep, and the harbour is strongly fortified; it contains several fine buildings, a cathedral, the palace of the Grand-Masters of the Knights Templar, and the hospital of St. John; there is also a university and a large public library.
Valette, Jean Parisot de la, grand-master of the order of St. John, famous for his military exploits and for his defence of Malta against the Turks in 1565 (1494-1565) . ”

“ Then, just as the train was starting, Valetta was ushered with some ceremony into his empty compartment.
Black did not know that it was the Duchess; he did not know that the Duchess was going to the Davidsons. He only knew that a thin, middle-aged, rather expensively dressed woman in a pince-nez had been thrust upon him, and he resented it. He realized, too, the fact that she was treated with much deference by the attendant guard. There was an innate radicalism in Black which was always up in arms against this show of deference to the upper classes. ”

“ There was no truth in the report respecting the short quarantine at Ancona, and, eventually, they all embarked in the steam-packet for Falmouth.
VALETTA. At eight o'clock, we landed from our boat at the harbour stairs, and entered Valetta. Rarely have I seen a city so remarkable for its cleanliness: in that very essential quality, it may be said to equal the most agreeable towns of Flanders and Holland. My first visit was to the Neapolitan consul, when I found there was some difficulty about the Turkish tobacco which I had in my possession. ”

“ To open the door is not the way to keep out a thief.
Valetta is a place of life, bustle, and animation. The Maltese are a busy people, given to gesticulation; and it is full of naval and military officers, and soldiers, and sailors, who are not addicted to quietude, especially the latter; and there are Greeks, and Moors, and Spaniards, and Italians, and Jews innumerable, congregated there, and priests and friars of all orders, who delight in the ringing of bells, so that silence is little known in this city of ramparts, steps, big guns, and churches. The streets are wide and handsome ”

“ The losses during the period of siege, with its nu [Pg 154] merous engagements, were estimated at some 30,000 Turks, and 8,000 men and 260 Knights of the Order. Is it strange that by contributions from all over Christian Europe there was soon built up a town bearing the name of Valetta, thus commemorating the heroism and military prowess of the Order's Grand Master La Valette, as well as the "glorious issue" of the struggle for Malta, and the confirmation of the Order as a sovereign independent community? ”

“ Every one now knows the other protagonist. The unhappy Valetta, Duchess of Tottenham, has attained a celebrity she neither desired nor deserved. Her very tricks of manner and speech are familiar to the general public. Unhappy she certainly is, and for no fault of her own. ”

“ In 1829 he was appointed commanding royal engineer at Malta, and died at Valetta on 11 Nov. 1831, while acting governor. He was honoured with a public funeral, and was buried in the old saluting battery overlooking the grand harbour. He married in 1800 Elizabeth, only daughter of P. Morshead, esq., of Widey Court, Plymouth, Devonshire, by whom he had eleven children. A man of frank and engaging manners, a good conversationalist, and a clear writer, he was fond of society, and exercised a genial hospitality. There is a bust in the royal engineers' office in Valetta, Malta. ”

“ The Queen’s army cannot move till November, which will give me time and plenty to summon Valetta.
“Between it all I may get some action to clear my atmosphere. If I stayed long in Naples, I feel as if I should not be able to leave it. I have never lived till now, but I must struggle against it, though goodness knows why. Surely the Power which sent us into the world meant us to make the best of our lives. Not the best in a shore-parson’s sense, but the best in the sense of extracting the utmost cause for thankfulness out of life—the utmost gratitude for it. ”

“ Most Englishmen at home are so far from warlike sights that they are apt to forget that their country has after all shown herself great in war as well as in commerce. But no man can forget that fact as he stands here upon the Barecca of Valetta, and looks down upon the great forts and the ironclads which sleep securely beneath their walls. ”

“ As may be expected, it requires much practice to wear such a dress gracefully. Many of the best ladies of Valetta now get their fashions direct from Paris—so the world moves.
The little party of tourists have ascended the hill for the purpose of obtaining the glorious view referred to, and at the same time whiling away a few hours of time, for their stay at the Island of Malta has not been of their choosing, a peculiar accident causing the steamer on which they were taking passage to put in here for some necessary repairs. ”

“ Catarina nuns; but the rage for this species of seclusion has very much subsided in Valetta. The former establishment is nearly empty, and the latter is receiving but very few additions. Two other churches in the city, one dedicated to Sta. Lucia and the other called Delle Anime (of the Souls in Purgatory) , belong to the public. The Greek Catholics [Pg 13] have also a small chapel, dedicated to Sta. Maria, in Strada Vescovo. By far the finest specimen of modern architecture is the Protestant church, built at the charge of Queen Adelaide, who sojourned for a short time at Malta. ”

“ There are the overhanging shading roofs, as at Genoa and other places; but the Knights, not being permitted to marry, had no families, and so did not require many sleeping-rooms: therefore, in most of the houses of Valetta the reception-rooms and courts are spacious, lofty, and handsomely decorated, and occupy by far the larger portion of the building, while the sleeping-rooms are narrow, confined, and limited in extent. ”

“ The Maltese are liars and braggarts, though they can fight pretty well when it comes to a choice between fighting and being butchered like sheep. Unless Valetta has reached the starvation point—and I think it has not—even my fleet could not reduce it by bombardment or assault; and the Maltese might be allowed to attack it from now till the crack of doom, without the defenders needing to fire a single gun.
“Still the French have more than once lost heart when their communications have been cut off; and if I go to Malta and summon them from my ships,—‘who knows?’ as the Spaniards say. ”

“ It is true that I had seen Adriana piling up rugs and mattresses, mine amongst them, and carrying them out, but I could not suppose that Mrs Valetta had given any special directions for my comfort.
The post-office was humming like a beehive. Men were hastily finishing the barricades, and Colonel Blow was shouting instructions with a sandwich in one hand and a sand-bag in the other. Evidently he had had no time to dine. Lanterns flickered everywhere, and a group of men were getting a Hotchkiss into position on top of a piece of raised ground. ”

“ Yet she must once have had good looks far above the average. The traces of them were on her still—but they were only traces.
Presently Mrs Valetta and her party arrived. Adriana, loaded like a beast of burden, brought my dressing-case to me immediately, but the others when they saw me turned and fled as if from the yellow peril. Mrs Skeffington-Smythe, extraordinarily pale and subdued, made her way to her striped tent, followed by her husband who talked vivaciously and fondly to the back of her gown. ”

“ The excellent port of La Valetta singularly facilitates the military and commercial part which Malta is called upon to play in the world of the Me­di­ter­ra­nean. It is sufficiently spacious to shelter two entire fleets, and its approaches are defended by fortifications rendered impregnable by the successive work of three centuries. There are, besides, all the facilities required by merchantmen, including a careening dock larger than any other in the world. The commerce of the island is rapidly increasing ”

“ Many waters cannot drown love, but there are fires in life that can burn out of a woman the last root of vanity; and I had been through those flames. Some vague idea possessed me, perhaps, of hiding from the cynical eyes of Nonie Valetta the scars the furnace had left on me. I had always felt it to be due to Maurice, as well as myself, to cover up the hollowness of our life from curious eyes, and I think no one had ever suspected what we hid under our pleasant manner to each other in public. ”

“ For two or three miles, they rise quite perpendicular to the height of from 130 to 160 feet: yet so daring are the inhabitants, that, for the sake of birds’ eggs or of fishing, they will venture down their sides, stepping [17] from crag to crag, where, to an inexperienced eye, it would appear utterly impossible to find footing.
About five miles from La Valetta there was a country residence of the Governor’s, called the palace of St. Antonio, in a village of the same name. ”