254 THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book n.

fortunate Molay, who had now succeeded to Gaudin,spoke to each other for the last time, the greatestdifficulty was got over, it is said, by their mutualgenerosity. They were ready each, to abdicate,for the whole mixed body to elect their chief, who,as long as any of the existing Templars lived, wasto be of their order, and, after them, that thingswere to be as before. But, though the two gene-rous chiefs were agreed thus, not so their knights,whose ratification was quite necessary, and, there-fore, the whole plan miscarried, and the substanceof their argument was sent, in his own name, byMolay, afterwards, in his answer to the Pope,whether Molay dictated it, or availed himself of1305 prepared already by his immediate pre-

decessor, Gaudin, who had been elected bythe only ten Templars who got alive from Acre,and was succeeded by one of them, Molay. 1

“ But my answer shall be simply that I cannotgo till after I have settled respecting an island,”replied the Hospitaller, on their second interviewthat same day; “and many islands being in theseseas, no one knows which 1 mean. None, even ofmy own knights, except my brother, perhaps incase I should die. But as to you, I will make nosecret of it, but present you another offer, since it1 Scb. Paoli : Osservazioni, ii. 462.