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THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book ii.

but he does not mention what tradition adds, thatthey each had to hold a little silver sceptre in theirhand during divine service, to remind them thatsome of their sisterhood had been queensnoravows that it was contrary to the ancient customof the order that they should be thus shut up like^ nuns. Of Cceur de Lion’s nephew, Harry CountPalatine of Troyes (or Champagne), we havea deed of gift, less remarkable for his not entitlinghimself sovereign for the property in Acre, than forhis care to mention his wife, in whose right he couldpretend to royalty . 1 2

But early in the next year is a letter from thegrand master to the prior of his knights in England,in which he relates the shipwreck of severalnoble gentlemen of his order, the sore faminein Egypt, where that river of paradise had not over-flowed, the menaces of Safadin, and worse still, theforlorn state of their house in Sicily, from its havingbeen sacked by Germans and others; so that theirknights were obliged to leave it; nor was it possi-ble for it to assist the Holy Land ; “ Wherefore, mygood brother, we entreat of you to send us all youcan by the very earliest opportunity in March, forwe are heavily in debt, and you know what loads

1 Vertot: ii. 301.—Bosio.

2 Cod. Dipl. Geros., Num. lxxxi., i., 87.—Appendix, lii.