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HISTORY OT MALTA.

recourse to the pope, who cited the rebellious knights to appear be-o fore him. They acknowledged their fault; but, on pretence of theirhaving neither commanderies, private fortune, nor indeed any thingto enable them to undertake such a journey, the grand-master ob-tained a dispensation from the pope. They, however, were obligedto present themselves before him and the whole council, with waxtapers in their hands, thus to repair their fault in full assembly, andto ask pardon for their conduct. This was granted them, after hav-ing received a severe reprimand from La Cassiere.

These were not the only disorders which called for punish-ment ; others of a much more atrocious nature took place. Six

Portuguese knights, masked, and wearing false beards, entered the

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house of one of their countrymen, the chevalier Carreras, and bar-barously murdered him. So dreadful a crime did not, however,long remain unpunished. They were presently discovered, appre-hended, delivered over to secular justice, and sentenced to be putinto a sack and thrown alive into the sea; which sentence was im-mediately carried into execution.