CHAP. VI.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

205

lie door, but it was at the bottom of the room; andhow get to it ? But certainly Bansjat is said tohave become deadly pale. Perhaps he thoughthe never might be allowed to leave that room.“ Neither should,” opined more than one of thosecavaliers. “ If there be traitors amongst us,” witha voice like thunder cried a knight (after havinglocked the great door inside, which Eansjat seeingis reported to have got, if possible, still paler),“which I prefer not believing, in spite of all thatnoise about the gunpowder and at such a criticalmoment too—such culprits ought instantly be putan end to. There was what sufficed for valiant menbefore the discovery of gunpowder, and why not nowtoo ? Our cannons are useless, that is all; but theworks and drawbridges are serviceable the same;and this invasion may be easily prevented frompenetrating into our city.”

How it had ended it is vain to attempt divining;for a loud report was heard from a platoon of wildMaltese militia in open sedition, and indeed mixedwith a rabble of rioters of the lowest of the people,and among them some young scamps of citizens; allarmed, who fired into the keyhole and at once bursthi the door, and Bansjat running to them put him-self into security in their centre; and then- bayonetshaving in an instant cleared the room, they issued with