140

THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book iii.

sight with Satanic malignity . 1 That L’lsle Adamwas elected in February, 1521, is all we find in thearchives; the rest is lost, and we must haverecourse for details elsewhere (says Bosio.) Forthese he follows Bourbon chiefly; but Bourbon,though a knight of the order, and then at Rhodes,is too jejune to be at all satisfactory. Had he notbesides party views? The divisions between Franceand Spain had already begun ripening into thebitter wars of Charles V. and Francis, and addedvenom to the soreness of the Languages. NaturallyBourbon exclaims against him of Portugal, and at-tributes every disaster to his treason, of which wefind not one iota of accusation in the documents.Lost ? WI 137 , in that case, not give the accused the

benefit of it? Lost? But did they ever exist?Bosio says he never saw them, and merely followsBourbon, who never cites them; the other eye-witness, whose book Bosio seems never to haveseen, nor could what contains extracts from it (theCod. Dipl. Geros.) never mentions the name of theaccused at all. So the whole accusation standsupon one single witness. And is one enough? Thejudge of appeals may have opined not. And suchis probably the reason of his silence in the full anddetailed relation, where he takes care to inform us1 Bosio : par. ii., lib. xviii. 519.