8'2 THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book ill.

tection of the order ; which called for no greatgratitude. No time to wait; Zain was in a wofulcondition.

His embassy to Rhodes with a formal epistlewritten previous to his final disaster, and mention-ing safe conduct and terms, had been taken by theTurks; so, when reduced to extremities, he sentthose two faithful servants, who got to that island,with a few lines of credence. They stipulated fornothing but an asylum and a ship to take him to it;he wanting to consult with D’ Aubusson on his intri-cate affairs, and that he hoped his being a Mahome-tan, as he was born, would not prevent knights frompitying a forlorn prince under such bitter persecution.Yet was he really in a more pitiable state than hismessengers knew, for he had then a small suite; buthe was now deserted by all the world, and pursued bymurderers into the sea. Still even what was knownat Rhodes was quite enough. Neither D’Aubussonnor the council could reject so reasonable a prayer,not for troops or money, but only an asylum. Asto the safe-conduct cited by Bosio, it infalliblyargues a mistake—probably papers in the Chanceryrelating to something else—a sketch never finishedor sent; not of sufficient authenticity for the diplo-matic collection; and at any rate there was a grosserror as to the facts, for it pre-supposes a suite of