CUAP. I.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

269

selves. But they were the very men who owedhim most gratitude in this world, and, far bittererwoe, unworthy chief ministers of that sacred creedfor the defence of which he had devoted his wholelife to exile and danger; he who wanted neitherwealth nor rank, but had them both from birth,as of one of the richest and noblest families in Bur-gundy, And if he had now become Grand Master,was it a step higher? Had he not been born aprince? Or whither does the Grand Mastery directhim ? And not Mahometans his execrable assailants,but Christians. And who will now deliver him tothe flames, after all they could to force him todisgrace himself by a false confession, and, what isstill worse, succeeded in a certain fashion! Butturn from such abominations. Yet what historianwhose lot bids liis passing that way, but is inhonour and conscience bound to fling his tribute ofexecration on the murdered creature’s grisly cairn ?How exaggerated had been their wealth and numbers,was soon shown; for though France was the headquarters, and almost home to the Templars, theywere found not thousands, but about seventeenscore. Nor could it well be otherwise, since onlyten got alive from Acre, and when, after a reinforce-ment from Europe, they lost one hundred andtwenty in the Tartar war, it was held to be little