ABEY. III.]

ST. JOHN OE JERUSALEM.

263

of December, 1523, in a fine, clear, quite legiblestate, though in antique letters of course. It evi-dently had lain all those ages unobserved, exceptby such as touched it with reverence. It shall ofcourse be in the Appendix; and my exact researcheswould not have been ill repaid had I been evenmuch longer. Now then for the first, does thehero’s letter favour the press; and possibly it mayembalm my book, which might otherwise be foundundeserving of life. But at present it may besaved for containing that memorial of a personagein honour almost everywhere. 1

Nor did L’Isle Adam, for all the Papal favours,cease going about as a private person; and one daytowards vespers, walked into St. Peter’s Church,where was a great crowd, as expecting the Ponti-fical display; on which he walked up to one ofthe masters of ceremonies, and asked what place hewas to occupy, as he saw many places prepared. Sothe functionary, astonished at so unusual a questionfrom an utter stranger, a private gentleman, re-ferred to his superior, who demurred and looked onthe stranger, and would have interrogated him,whom the Pope seeing, with his hand signalled thehead master of ceremonies to approach the Ponti-fical throne, where he was then sitting, and bade1 Cottonian MSS.—Appendix, ccviii.