294 THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [Book iv.

during the few days preceding the next grandmaster , 1 who was a Spaniard, Bailly of Caspe, andKnight of Arragon, of the name of Homedez, who,though not in the island, had an active agent in aknight who wished to get his baillywick, by get-ting him lifted to that promotion, and gained hispoint against Homedez’s two rivals, the Bailiff ofPisa and the Bailiff of Lango. But Homedez hadlikewise great real merits, though he turned outless vigorous than perhaps he should have been . 2

Charles V. having driven Barbarossa from Bar-bary, the villain fled to Constantinople, to engageSolyman to come and attack the Christians. Thiswas known at Malta, but not whether he would beginwith Africa, or the stronghold of the Hospitallers.So it was uneasy living in that island. The morefrom the absence of both grand master and hislocum-tenens at first. No government, and almostevery night brawls, chiefly attributable to the unquietspirit of West. And at last the grand master’sdeath, and at a new election with about three hun-dred and sixty knights, of whom the Englishnamed were Sir Egidius Russell, Sir Richard Brown,Sir Beril Rose. The three distinctive merits givenOmedez by his partisans, were—first, that he wasa Spaniard, most fitting for the order at that time.

1 Seb. Paoli : Serie, ii. 474.—Appendix, ccxiv.

2 Id. : Id., ii. 474.