CHAP. II.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

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statute of theirs expressly forbids them any sign oflamentation. Still their historians may complainof the apathy of the persons who left them in suchstraits. Those persons had the excuse of the com-munications cut off. But why did they wait forthat? Shame on Europe’s miserable parties andingratitude! Yet the noble defence is said to havea little deferred Constantinople’s evil day, andperhaps saved the rest of Christendom. The Turkswere bad enough, but far worse the Tartars.Timour himself may in several things have beensuperior to his countrymen. The “ iron cage ” andall about it may be mere fable; but if it be true,as universally related, that he had Bajazet’sfavourite son butchered, did he not share theirsanguinary disposition? A young man of no con-spicuous family having entered by the dispense ofone Pope, and being sent by another with an in-junction to make him shield-bearer of the wholeorder, the knights did so, though grumbling at whatthey declared contrary to their statutes—growingpretensions, which, if they almost always allowed,it was always Avith remonstrances and regret. Johnof Perusia was a noble-hearted person, and wellworthy of promotion, Avhatever his birth; for fromthe moment of their profession, all the knightsAvere on complete equality, nor was it allowed even