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Walter Scott had been familiar with the extraordinary story of the Siege of Malta in 1565. He composed Anne of Geierstein, Tales of a Grandfather and History of Scotland. Scott had finished Count Robert and Castle Dangerous, and was about to leave on his voyage to Malta in a vain search for an improvement in his health. The base-text for the present text of The Siege of Malta is the original manuscript, which is entirely in Scott's own hand, and which was never printed. This present text is an attempt to make available to scholars and more general readers what Scott wrote, or what he may reasonably be conjectured as having intended to appear in print, taking into account the editorial and printing procedures that governed the production of his late novels, and the expectations of contemporaneous readers.

The Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem was founded in the eleventh century to care for sick pilgrims in the Holy Land. The Sovereign and Military Order of the Knights of Malta established themselves in the islands under Philippe Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, was headed by a Grand Master, elected for life, and consisted of a celibate brotherhood of knights, chaplains, and serving brothers. The historical element of The Siege of Malta falls into three sections. The herald's narration before Don Manuel covers a Turkish attack on Gozo of uncertain date. The main historical source for The Siege of Malta is the history of the Knights by the Abbé de Vertot. Walter Scott's fictionalising impulse continues even in the final part of his narrative, when he is following Vertot more closely.

The Siege of Malta and Bizarro by Walter Scott are preserved principally in the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library. Substantial extracts from The Siege of Malta were included in Donald Sultana's detailed description of the work and the circumstances of its composition, ‘The Siege of Malta’ Rediscovered. Unlike The Siege of Malta, Bizarro has remained wholly unpublished. The Siege of Malta and Bizarro are the last two products of the creative urge that so daunted Iain Crichton Smith in 1971. They are offered to scholars and general readers for their enlightenment and enjoyment, in the belief that the works will be found helpful as they seek to understand more fully the significances personal, national and international of the phenomenon that was and is Sir Walter Scott.

The chapters included in The Siege of Malta are elaborated in this chapter. The sacking of Gozo and the similar attempt upon Malta struck great terror into the islands whose inhabitants were not in a more defensible situation. The tramp of Don Manuel's arm-gaunt steed brought the attendants with the chocolate. The inhabitants of Malta, feudal subjects of the Knights, raised companies of four thousand good musqueteers, and the mercenary soldiers and volunteers amounted to two or three thousand more, a slender force to resist a land army of thirty thousand men, who came assisted by so very large a naval contingent. The Grand Master was particularly affected by the death of Abel de Bridiers de la Gardampe. The present town of Malta, or as it is properly called of La Valette, is perhaps one of the most singular in Europe.

This diplomatic transcription of The Siege of Malta tries to translate Walter Scott's verbal signs as closely as possible into print, without attempting to correct the omnipresent local errors and confusions attributable largely to his two strokes. The extremely faulty nature of his stricken handwriting means that no method of transcription can be entirely satisfactory, and a degree of editorial interpretation has to be exercised. Towards the end of his life, Scott's ‘i’ and ‘e’ are frequently indistinguishable. His ‘a’ can be indistinguishable from his ‘u’ or from his ‘i’ or ‘e’; his ‘o’ can be indistinguishable from his ‘i’ or ‘e’. A particular problem for the editor of Scott's last manuscripts arises from his very frequent omission of one or more necessary letters or his insertion of ones that are superfluous. Scott frequently writes a word twice, and he often misses out words and sometimes fails to complete a sentence.