CHAP. IV.]

ST. JOHN OH JERUSALEM.

39

charge of captain general, which he did; and, asthat of the treasury was included, it was in factmaking him dictator during the siege. 1

In the ensuing May of 1478 there was a chap-ter general holden in Rhodes, 2 in which ^ ^

several of the wisest laws were made, as lossof ten years of rank, for whoever obtains a letter ofrecommendation from a foreign sovereign for anyplace or dignity in the order—if ever any of itsknights could be guilty of such insolent baseness. 3 4But what illustrated this chapter general most isits ratification of what the public voice had alreadydone, investing D’Aubusson, with absolute powerin every respect, not one alone—during the siegedThat long threatening was at last at hand. Yetnot quite, for in spite of everything—Constanti-nople itself, and afterwards Trebisond, Persia,Negropont, Lesbos, had been but preparations.At Scutari, where the Turks were driven back, sovast a number of arrows were shot, that the towns-men gathering them up, were supplied with fire-wood for several months—and this too, whenartillery and gunpowder were in full use, both with

1 Bosio: par. ii., lib. x., anno 1477.

2 Cod. Dipl. Gteros., ii., Num. cxxii.

3 Statuta de Ptenis, xviii. 16.

4 Bouhours : Vie D’Aubusson, ii. 68.—Yertot; vii. 82.