CHAP. IV.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

67

ignominy they left the Rhodian shores, and retiredby Phiscus, 1 and continent, to the ancient metro-polis they had come from. May the Omnipotentvouchsafe welfare to your Imperial Majesty.

“ Your Imperial Majesty’s humble servant,

“ Peter d’Aubusson,

“ Master of the Jerusalem Hospital and Consuls.“ Rhodes , 13 th of September, 1480.”

For my part, it must be owned, that until Iread it, I never well understood the more spun-outaccounts, and think my readers tvill have a com-pleter notion, than if I troubled them about itlonger. Save, it seems but bare justice to D’Au-busson to add, he is allowed on all hands to havebeen the soul which animated that defence, andtook a personal and lion’s share in each of itshazardous events, great or small, working like acommon labourer, carpenter, engineer, chemist;and having planned his battles like a great general,fighting them like a private soldier, invariably theheadmost man; so that he slew many of theTurkish officers with his own hand, and wascovered with wounds some of them severe, yet

1 A port in Asia Minor, opposite to Rhodes, and abouteighteen miles from it.—Seb. Paoli: Osservazioni, ii. 551.—Appendix, clxxiii.

F 2