ABEY, III.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

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to the Vatican, and lodged there in a magnificentapartment, is only to hint at what actually hap-pened. Had I inherited the power of Cicero, oreven of that Khodian who with most burning andfluent eloquence animated his countrymen to battle,when a ball hit and killed him, I might undertakea description of that day, and how Hadrian,though decrepid and sick, rose nevertheless, andadvanced several paces to receive our grand master;and on his sitting down himself, bade the other sitnear him, along with the cardinals. Hadrian, mostexcellent of ancient men, and as it were more divinethan human, if the Almighty had granted him lifeeven for a little longer, I am persuaded he wouldhave placed the Hospitallers in their former position.But he was in his last sickness. At his arrival hehad got up to receive him, and then returned tobed. But on the morning of the third day, findinghimself a little better, he had the grand mastercalled from his rooms in the Pontifical palace, forlodged in it were his, and much more he—whosoon found himself fourth in the Pope’s bedchamber—the other three being his Holiness on his couch,and on each side of it an assistant—where solemnwas the Papal promise to do everything possibletowards aiding him. But alas! the Pontiff fromthat moment got worse, and never spoke another