88 THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book III.

That the proffered peace was uppermost in thesultan’s mind, is shown by Zain’s not being evenmentioned in the credentials for Achmet Bassa toD’Aubusson; and since Bajazet had passed over toAsia Minor, that and some delay in the offices maywell incline us to believe that notwithstanding saidletter be dated late in August, it had been orderedpreviously to the 12th of July. 1 Caoursinus andJaligni are of direct opposite opinions. No possi-bility of reconciling them. Nor is that new inhistory, nor in private life either. So 1 had tocome to my conclusion without paying much at-tention to either of them, 2 pinning my faith only toan accurate survey of these impartial papers.

On the 27th of July, Zain entered Rhodes, as welearn from a letter dated on the last day of thatmonth, in which D’Aubusson expressly writes tothe Pope that after much reflection, the order had

1 Cod. Dipl. Greros., ii., Hum. xxii.—Appendix, clxxviii.

2 Yet if obliged to choose between them, it would be injusticenot to prefer the man who had lived most part of his life atRhodes, and was married there, so as to be almost reputeda Rhodian, although Fleming by birth, and with a bad, flatulentstyle of writing, and deprived himself of all authority respect-ing the siege, by acknowledging no records had been keptduring it: not so with regard to Zain, whose entrance he wason the spot to see ; whereas Jaligni, though a contemporary, wasliving at Paris, not Rhodes, being secretary to Peter Boiu’bon, apersonage well known in the history of France.