iiiSiiiiaiaiiii

it’Xl.ifcVtfckl Hi Hi i

30 THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book iii.

and allowing themselves to be influenced intoelecting there the grand master (although theyprotested he ought to be so at Rhodes) elected thePrior of Rome, Sir John Orsini, who voted for thePrior of England; and as return, the English eaglevoted for the Prior of Rome. But one Englishmanat least, Sir John Weston, then only a simple Knightof Rhodes, gave his vote boldly in contradiction tothe Papacy, whose choice, however, was of one notunworthy. Kor did Weston’s example go for nothing;since St. Gilles was within a single vote, he havingeight and Orsini nine; which votes were collectedand written down in a list by the Pontiffs ownhands, and moreover he read them aloud fand in thenext consistory of cardinals proclaimed the resultfrom his Vatican throne . 1

The new grand master instantly set out forRhodes, and despatched a circular calling on all theknights and servants-at-arms to join him in thatisland, in order to present a sufficient front to themenaces of Mahomet II., whose inextinguishableambition never left them a moment’s ease. Re-sponded to it with the happiest diligence an influxof signal persons , 2 among whom is named a Sir. . . Scaf, a Bourbon, divers Englishmen, and

1 Bosio: par. ii., lib. viii., anno 1467.

2 Id- : id.,ix., anno 1471.