ABEY. HI.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

241

piteous honoured hands into theirs the sura thatwas to purchase their necessary raiment and food,he less a benign prince than most tender father;they, who as naturally took the sorrowful prece-dence of embarking, and suffering, as once ofsocial consideration and refinement in their ownsweet home, full of gratitude and wild affection,they knelt in crowds to kiss his hands; and he,who had been remarkable for never having shed atear during all the calamities he had endured,and seen others undergo in the late frightfulscenes at Rhodes, he, that impassable, butgentle white-haired stoic, burst into a loud floodof weeping. No doubt at that moment the wholeaccumulated miseries were thrown on his mindat once; and if he did not break down under suchan awful load, he shuddered with a bitter gushthat refused to be mastered, and every part of hisframe quivered. The death of so many he hadloved, the infinitude of carnage before his eyes, theprobable utter ruin of his revered order—and hisfaithful, devoted vassals, to see them fallen into thissad plight—what sadder did human creatures everexhibit?—And what is to become of them? Howcould he refrain from dissolving, diamond as hewas? How could they not but doat on him themore? That was in a remote angle of the Isle of

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