CHAP. V.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

273

Otteger Balben 1 was followed by another as old,from the same province, Sir Arnaud de Comps,who likewise, after a few months, was replaced bySir Gilbert d’Assaly, or De Sailly, 2 whom some callan Englishman, 3 and some from Tyre; 4 yet bothmay be true, if he was from English parents, andborn in Tyre, or brought thither in his childhood;however all that is quite uncertain; mere conjec-ture might suggest Sir Gilbert d’ Estley. 5 Certainlyhis making for England as his last refuge, like ahare to its form, seems to denote his fatherland. 6He was too unfortunate for any nation to be verydesirous of owning him. Notwithstanding whathas been written, it is most certain, from the in-controvertible evidence of three documents extant,that D’ Assaly was Grand Master in Janu- ^ary, 1163. T Now De Comps could have buteight months at most, which however were enoughto lay the seeds of a calamitous undertaking. Forhaving accompanied Almeric in an excursion intoEgypt, it was attended with good success, theMoslems not having been able to bear the shock

1 Cod. Dip. Geros., i. 335.—Bosio : par. 1, lib. ii., anno 1163.

2 Yertot: ii. 193.

3 Cod. Dipl. Geros., i. 336.—Yum. xxxviii., clxiv.

4 Id.: Yum. clxxxvii.

5 Sir Harris Yicbolas : Synopsis, i. 32.

6 Cod. Dipl., 335, 336.—Bosio,—Hoveden ibi.

7 Id: Id.—Yum. xxxviii.

VOL. I.

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