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THE HISTORY OF TIIE ORDER OF [book iv.

loud republican cries and bearing Ransjat with them;so some of Hompesch’s servants came and sliut tbedoor again as well as they could. And all was fortbe moment over.

Terrified by no feAV of the revolutionary Maltese,who strutting through the rooms of the palace, gaveit clearly to be understood, that not only theycounted on the grand master as nothing, but that theythemselves were the real lords and would deliver upthe city to Buonaparte, whether the knights liked itor not; yet the very difficulty of his situation ap-pears to have elevated Hompesch’s spirit a little once ;resolving to go forth and present himself to the moband call upon them to return to then' former fidelity,and defend the island against all invasion. Thegreat probability is that they would have shot him—which many of the order representing to him and thathis murder at that moment would be assuredly thesignal for a universal murder of all the knights, andthat his life had ceased to be his own property fromthe day he had become grand master; he allowedhimself to be persuaded to abstain from the project.Yet if he had realised it, who knows but it mighthave succeeded ? A band of stout men executed thesentence of the grand master, and carried Bansjatinto prison at St. Angelo’s. But what use of it ?The mob broke into that fort and liberated him.