CHAP. II.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

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were always travelling. Their head-quarters dis-played the best of different customs, and had allthe chief tongues then spoken in Europe, andothers that are dead there, or were never livingthere. If gold forks were used by the fine ladiesin Constantinople, let us recollect that at that exacttime one of the knights was its emperor. Whohad them, if not he? And the famous FrederickI. of Germany, did he not delight in saying he wastheir equal? And the royal houses of France andEngland, we may be quite sure there was nothingfiner in either than with their near relatives, theKnights of Rhodes. If it be learning to beversant with all that remained of old Greece andRome, and to be excellent in various sciences, butparticularly such as relate to war, and not defi-cient in whatever of literature Europe or modernGreece offered, they had fairer opportunities thanthen existed anywhere else. If their table wasreduced to a single dish, that was at a moment ofgreat exertion, and even then related only tothemselves, not to their guests ; of whom they hadgenerally more than one imperial or royal person-age to maintain in beseeming grandeur. Thatthey had young lions domesticated, hounds trainedin France, hawks, and field sports, has beenshown, and quite natural. Enough of their do-