CHAP. VI.] ST. .TOIIN OF JERUSALEM. 151

ordered that everything should be laid waste, do sothen of yourselves, most noble creatures, nor stopat unsparingly extirpating your own property.Let not our most cruel enemies find anything hereto sack. Put up with this sacrifice; first of many;for we are all embarked now in one ship. Whyconceal anything from you, most valorous people?In these disastrous times you have seen how high-minded and wise our grand master is, and meekand modest with every one, great or little; and hashe not shown you the example, by destroying hismost beautiful and delightful garden, and convert-ing his palace into barracks ? 1 Therefore, I sayto you, most generous islanders, to work! to work!and leave the entire of Rhodes, beyond our wallsas bare as any wildest wilderness.”

By the grand master’s orders, says Bosio, wellsand waters outside of the city and near it, werecorrupted; and if poisoned, it seems to have beenunconsciously, and as it were accidentally, bythrowing into them the hemp and flax seed, whichthey had pulled up in the fields . 2 And the Greekarchbishop, a man of the holiest life, and muchwisdom and persuasion, got up into an elevatedplace in the open air, opposite an image of theVirgin Mary, and holding out a crucifix in one

2 Bosio: par. ii., lib. xx, 541.

1 Fontanus : 355.