THE Maltese felt very offended and unhappy when their churches were looted, the charity carried out by the Order stopped, and the powers of the Bishop reduced. The last straw Came when the tapestries of the Carmelite Church at Mdina were to be sold by auction on September 2, 1798 many people gathered around the church to prevent this sacrilege.
Captain Masson, the French officer in command at Mdina, to frighten the crowds, brandished his sword and ordered them to go away, but these angrily rushed upon him. When Masson tried to hide inside a house, the mob forced open the door, caught him, and hurled him out of a balcony on to the street below, where he died on the instant.
At that moment, a boy went up the church belfry and began to ring the bells. In a few hours, Malta and Gozo were up in arms against the French, and some rebels cut off all communications between Mdina and Valletta. The Maltese quickly organised themselves under Emmanuelle Vitale and Canon F.S. Caruana, and on the morning of the next day, entered Mdina, killed all the French soldiers, and hoisted the Maltese flag on the bastions, near Msierah, the rebels, under Vincenzo Borg, known as Brared, raised a strong battery to command the surrounding area.
On his side, Vaubois ordered the closing of Porte des Bombes and of the Gates of Cospicua to be prepared against a siege. He could resist a siege, really, because all the corn stores were on his side, but the Maltese, although united, did not have any supplies of munitions and food. They melted pipes of lead for the guns, used mattresses, pillows, or other soft materials for wadding, and furniture as firewood. They had to ask for help, so, the National Assembly, under Vitale, wrote to Ferdinand IV, King of Naples, described their sorry situation, and begged for help, luckily, things moved swiftly: on the 19th, a Portuguese squadron appeared off the harbour and blockaded the French fleet whilst assisting the rebels, on the 25th, Nelson arrived, stayed for a short time, and left Captain Ball here in command of the English warship 'Alexander' On the 27th, the Gozitans forced the French to shut themselves inside Fort Chambray and the old "Kastell". The English helped the Gozitans, and the French surrendered. Then, with the consent of the King of Naples, the Maltese invited Ball to come ashore, and direct all land forces. In the name of the King of Naples, Ball took the government in hand, and invited the French to surrender, but they did not.

THE FRENCH BLOCKADE VALLETTA

The King of Naples ordered the Viceroy of Sicily to send all necessities, to Malta, and Nelson brought them from there. The French, too, tried to get supplies but only one ship was able to reach Malta.
the result was that famine was raging in Valletta, and Vaubois was sending out a large num­ber of Maltese to ease the situation for his soldiers. Sickness appeared, too, amongst them, but they wanted to endure the siege till death. Vaubois collected all valuables, and made coins out of the gold and silver he found in the City. He also ordered that every inch of soil should be tilled to get food products.
In the meantime, the Maltese were plan­ning a bold attack on Valletta and Cottonera: they had to open the gates of Valletta, ring the bells, and hoist a banner with the figure of St. Paul, the country people would then rush in.
A Greek came to know of the plot, and reported everything to the French, which resulted in 45 persons being shot and the blockade extending for 2 years. General Pigott took the place of Ball, and asked the French to surrender, which they did, then the English entered Valletta, occupied Floriana, Tigne' and Ricasoli, whilst the French left the Island

amongst those caught for plotting against the French, there was Father Michael Xerri, a professor at the University. The French asked him to give them the names of other conspirators, not 0nly he but also all his companions refused to do this.
On the morning of January 17, 1799, the prisoners were brought from St.Elmo to ' Liberty Square', a platoon of soldiers awaited them, A few hours before, Bishop Labini had visited Dun Mikiel and the other prisoners, and had blessed them. On their way to the Square where they were going to meet death, Dun Mikiel encouraged his friends.
there, a firing squad was ready, and Dun Mikiel asked for some minutes to speak to his compatriots. Prayers were said, and they al1 asked God to forgive them. Dun Mikiel advanced towards the officer, took out a silver watch, gave it to him, and said, "Please fire straight at my heart, I shall give you the signal to fire" Then he shouted, together with the heroes, "God have mercy on us! Long lives Malta!" Again. His, voice rang out clearly, "Fire".
There was a volley of shots, Dun Mikiel and the rest slumped down. Malta, for whose freedom they had died, received their warm bodies.

The French Fleet

The French Fleet, 300 transport vessels, 13 ships of the line and 7 frigates - appeared off Malta in June 1798. Malta's walls were impregnable but the will to defend them was non-existent. The Knights of French origin and Maltese intellectuals who absorbed the teachings and ideals of the French Revolution plotted against the Grandmaster while the population was fed up with the Knights and was not ready to shed its blood for them. So Malta fell to Bonaparte with little trouble.
After examining Malta's fortifications, General Caffarelli, head of the engineers, told Bonaparte: "Upon my word, General, it is lucky that there was someone in the town to open the gates for us". If the Knights had resisted, a long siege would have been the result. For this purpose the French Army had a useful weapon.
On board the vessel La Patriote were the men and equipment of a balloon section, of which there were four in the French Army. This weapon had already been used successfully during the capture of the fortress of Charleroi and during the battle of Fleurus, which decided the fate of the Netherlands. With the immediate capitulation of the Order's forces, the balloon section was not needed and its equipment remained stored on La Pafriote, to be lost when the vessel was sunk during the battle of the Nile at Aboukir.
Bonaparte remained for a few days in Malta where with revolutionary zeal he set about to transform the life of a backward, priest dominated people. His reforms were excellent but too fast. He left for Egypt leaving a garrison of some 5,000 men. Within a few months the Maltese blinded by ignorance and prejudice, and egged on by bigoted priests, revolted. The French garrison and its few supporters, held out for two years despite a tight British Navy blockade and British and Napoletan material support for the Maltese insurgents.