CHAP. IV.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

69

him. To the general of artillery, who besoughthim not to expose himself so much, he repliedwith an affectionate smile; “ Nay, if it had killedme, you would have more to gain by my death thanI to lose; ” which passed for a prophecy amongstthose who held him prophet, as well as inimitablewarrior; meaning he considered Del Carrettoworthy of being elected grand master after him,eventually to be the case, as we shall see.

That he had public prayers immediately beforeand after the siege, no one will find otherwise thanlaudable; and if he had exposed a miraculousimage of the Virgin, which on the loss of Rhodeswas transported to Malta, and placed in St.John’s Church, that image is said to have been tothe Rhodians what Minerva’s was to the Trojans;they believed it the safeguard of their home, andthat as long as they kept it among them, they hadnothing to fear . 1

Though so popular and generally mild, he wassometimes very severe, as when during the siegehe resisted every supplication in favour of twodeserters, or rather, who only meditated deser-tion, and had them hanged from. the windows ofhis palace, and their dead bodies flung into the sea . 2

1 Bouhours : Yie d’Aubusson, ii. 106.—Appendix, clxxiv.

2 Id.: Id., iii. 140.