THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN
The Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, afterwards known as the Knights
of Rhodes, and eventually as the Knights of Malta—A brief sketch of the
Order, including the relation of how Gozon de Dieu-Donné, subsequently
Grand Master, slew the great Serpent of Rhodes; also some account of
Jean Parisot de la Valette, forty-eighth Grand Master, who commanded at
the Siege of Malta, in which the arms of Soliman the Magnificent were
defeated after a siege lasting one hundred and thirteen days.
Amongst all those principalities and powers against which Dragut
contended during the whole of his strenuous existence, there was no
one among them which he held in so much detestation as the famous
Knights of Saint John, known in the sixteenth century as the Knights
of Malta. This militant religious organisation had its origin in
Jerusalem in peculiar and interesting circumstances. After the death
of Mahomet, his followers, burning with zeal, put forward the tenets
of their religion by means of fire and sword; during the years which
followed the Hegira, 622 A.D., the arms of the Moslems were everywhere
successful, and amongst other places conquered by them was Palestine.
So great was the renown acquired by the Emperor Charlemagne that his
fame passed even into Asia, and Eginard states that the Caliph
Haroun Raschid permitted the French nation to maintain a house in
Jerusalem for the reception of pilgrims visiting the holy places, and
that, further, the Prince permitted the Patriarch of Jerusalem to send
to the Christian Emperor, on his behalf, the keys of the Holy Sepulchre
and those of the Church of Calvary, together with a standard which was
the sign of the power and authority delegated by the Moslem ruler to
his mighty contemporary. In the middle of the eleventh century Italian
merchants coming from Amalfi, who had experienced the hard lot of the
Christian pilgrims in reaching the Holy City, secured from the Caliph
Moustafa-Billah a concession of land, on which they built a chapel
known as St. Mary of the Latins, to distinguish it from the Greek
church already established at Jerusalem, and also constructed a hospice
in which to receive the pilgrims, whether in sickness or in health,
known as the Hospice of St. John.
In 1093 the untiring efforts of Peter the Hermit, with the support of
Pope Urbain II., brought about the first Crusade, and in 1099 we first
hear of Gerard, the founder of the Order of St. John. Gerard was a
French monk who, seeing the good work done by the Hospice of St. John,
had attached himself to it, and had at this time been working in the
cause of charity, and devoting himself to the pilgrims for many years.
Godfrey de Bouillon, having defeated the Saracens outside the walls
of Jerusalem, entered that city and visited the Hospice of St. John;
he there found many of the Crusaders who had been wounded during the
siege, and who had been carried thither after the taking of the
place: all of these men were loud in their praises of the loving
kindness with which they had been received and tended.
Great was the honour and reverence in which these simple monks were
held ever after by the Crusaders; for was it not common talk that these
holy men had themselves subsisted on the coarsest and most repulsive
fare in order that the food in the hospice should be both pure and
abundant? Fired by this fine example of Christian charity, several
noble gentlemen who had been tended in the hospice gave up the idea of
returning to their own countries, and consecrated themselves to the
Hospice of St. John, and to the service of the pilgrims, the poor, and
the sick. Among these was Raimond Dupuy.
The great Prince Godfrey de Bouillon fully approved of the steps taken
by these gentlemen, and for his own part contributed to the upkeep of
the hospice the seigneurie of Montbirre, with all its dependencies,
which formed a part of his domain in Brabant. His example was widely
copied by the Christian princes and great nobles among the Crusaders,
who enriched the hospice with many lands and seigneuries, both in
Palestine and in Europe. All these lands and properties were placed
unreservedly in the hands of the saintly Gerard to do with as he would
for the advancement of his work. In 1118 Gerard died in extreme old
age; “he died in the arms of the brothers, almost without sickness,
falling, as it may be said, like a fruit ripe for eternity.”
The choice of the Hospitallers as his successor was Raimond Dupuy,
a nobleman of illustrious descent from the Province of Dauphiny, and
it is he who first held rule under the title of Grand Master. In all
charity and loving kindness the life of Gerard had been passed, the
brethren of St. John occupying themselves merely in tending the sick,
in helping the poor and the pilgrims; but Raimond Dupuy was a soldier
of the Cross, and he laid before the Order a scheme by which, from
among the members thereof, a military corps should be formed, vowed
to a perpetual crusade against the Infidel. This, in full conclave,
was carried by acclamation, and the most remarkable body of religious
warriors that the world has ever seen then came existence.
This pact against the Infidel was in the first instance directed
against the barbarians who swarmed around the Holy City, and the
Hospitallers, who nearly all had been knights and soldiers of Godfrey
de Bouillon, joyfully took up their arms again to employ them in the
defence of this locality which they cherished, and in defence of
the pilgrims who were robbed, murdered, and maltreated in all the
surrounding country. In becoming warriors once more, they vowed to turn
their arms against the Infidel, and against him alone; to neither make
nor meddle with arms in their hands in any dispute between men of their
own faith. The composition of the Order as it was arranged by Raimond
Dupuy caused it to consist of three classes. In the first were placed
men of high birth and rank who, having been bred to arms, were capable
of taking command. In the second came priests and chaplains, who,
besides the ordinary duties attached to their religious profession,
were obliged, each in his turn, to accompany the fighting men in
their wars. Those who were neither of noble houses nor belonging to
the ecclesiastical profession were known as “serving brothers”: they
were employed indifferently in following the knights into battle or
in tending the sick in the hospital, and were distinguished by a
coat-of-arms of a different colour from that worn by the knights.
As the Order prospered amazingly, and as to it repaired numbers of the
young noblesse from all parts of Europe to enrol themselves under its
banner, it was accordingly divided into seven “Languages”; those of
Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Arragon, Germany, and England. To
the Language of Arragon was in later years allotted those of Castile
and of Portugal. The dress consisted of a black robe, with a mantle
of the same colour, the whole being called _manteau à bec_, having upon
the left side thereof a white cross in cloth, with light points. The
eight-pointed cross, or the Maltese Cross, as it came to be known in
subsequent centuries, will be seen upon the armour, engraven on the
breastplate, of all the pictures of the Grand Masters.
In the year 1259 the Pope, Alexander IV., finding that men of noble
birth objected to be habited as were the “serving brothers,” ordained
that the knights on a campaign should wear a “sopraveste” of scarlet
embroidered with the cross in white; further, that should any knight
abandon the ranks, and fly from the battle, he should be deprived
of his order and his habit. The form of government was purely
aristocratic, all authority being vested in the Council, of which
the Grand Master was the chief, the case of an equal division of
opinion being provided for by giving to the Grand Master the casting
vote. There were in the Order certain aged knights who were called
“Preceptors,” who, under authority delegated to them by the Council,
administered the estates and funds accruing, and also paid for the hire
of such soldiers or “seculars” whom the Knights took into their service.
Incidentally, it may be mentioned that the establishment of the
Knights of St. John led to the foundation of the famous Order of the
Knights Templars. In 1118 Hugues de Payens, Geoffrey de St. Aldemar,
and seven other French noblemen, whose hearts were touched by the
sufferings which the pilgrims underwent in their journey to Jerusalem,
formed themselves into a society with the object of the protection
of these inoffensive persons on their transit from the coast inland.
Hugues de Payens, received in audience by Pope Honoré II., was sent
by the Pontiff to the Peers of the Council, then assembled at Troyes
in Champagne; the Council approving of so charitable an enterprise,
the Order was formed, and Bernard, known as “Saint” Bernard, drew up
the code of regulations by which it was to be governed. The movement
spread, and many princes and nobles returned to the Holy Land in the
train of de Payens and his companions.
So famous did the Order of St. John become, that in 1133 Alfonzo, King
of Navarre and Arragon, who called himself Emperor of Spain, carried
his zeal so far as to bequeath to the knights his kingdoms of Navarre
and Arragon: this, however, was naturally and hotly contested in these
places, and Raimond Dupuy, who attended a Council to regulate the
matter, was content to compromise on certain lands and benefits being
allocated to those whom he represented.
On August 15th, 1310, the knights, under the Grand Master, Fulke de
Villaret, conquered the Island of Rhodes and established themselves
there, and from this time onward, while they held the island, were
known as the Knights of Rhodes. No sooner were the knights firmly
established in Rhodes and the fortifications placed in a proper
state of repair, than a tower was built on the highest point of the
island, of great height, from which a view could be obtained of the
sea and the surrounding islands, and from which information could be
signalled as to the movements of any vessels which were observed. It
was then decided to fortify the small island of Cos or Lango in the
vicinity, as it contained an excellent harbour; a fortress, planned
by the Grand Master himself, was erected on the island, a knight was
left in command, and we are told that under the successors of de
Villaret—himself twenty-fourth Grand Master—the island, which was very
fertile, flourished exceedingly, producing much fruit and some most
excellent wine.
There was reigning in Bithynia, at the time when the knights seized
upon Rhodes, that Ottoman whose name has come down to us when we speak
of the Ottoman Empire; it is a somewhat strange coincidence that
the Christian warriors, sworn foes of the Mussulman, should have so
established themselves just when the tide of the Mohammedan conquest
was about to rise and sweep away Byzantium; that they should arrive
upon the scene just as the curtain was about to rise on the tragedy
which, in its onward march, was to make of the church of St. Sophia a
mosque for the worship of the Ottoman Turks.
Ottoman—the descendant of one Soliman, the chief of a nomadic tribe
of Tartars who had been chased from the Empire of Persia in the year
1214—was not only a soldier and a conqueror, but also a great and
beneficent ruler in those regions in which he held sway. Approached
by those of his co-religionists who had been driven out of Rhodes by
the Knights, Ottoman embarked an army and attacked the place, assuring
himself of an easy conquest. In spite, however, of the fortifications
having been hastily constructed, his troops were defeated with great
loss, and he was obliged to raise the siege. In this manner did the
indomitable champions of Christendom begin that long and bloodthirsty
war between the Cross and the Crescent in the Mediterranean which
was to endure for nearly another five centuries. GOZON DE DIEU-DONNÉ
[Illustration: SLAYING THE GREAT SERPENT OF RHODES.]
In the long, chequered, and glorious history of the Knights there are
many strange and semi-miraculous deeds recounted of them in the wars
and adventures in which they took so prominent a part; the following,
which is gravely set out by the historians of the time, may be left to
the judgment of the reader. In 1324 Fulke de Villaret was succeeded in
the Grand Mastership by Helion de Villeneuve, a knight of exemplary
piety and a strict disciplinarian. Under his rule the Order regained
those habits of severe simplicity from which they had been allowed to
lapse by his predecessor. In 1329 Rhodes was greatly agitated by the
fact that a crocodile or serpent—as it is indifferently described—had
taken up its abode in the marshes at the foot of Mount St. Etienne,
some two miles from the town. This ferocious creature devoured sheep
and cattle; also several of the inhabitants had lost their lives by
approaching the neighbourhood in which it dwelt. Several attacks
were made upon it, but, as there were no firearms, all the missiles
projected against it rebounded harmlessly from the scales with which it
was covered. So dangerous had it become, that the Grand Master thought
it his duty to forbid any of the knights to attempt its destruction;
an order which was obeyed with a right good will. There was, however,
a knight of the Language of Provence called Gozon de Dieu-Donné, who
secretly determined that he would slay the serpent, and he accordingly
made it his occupation to observe as closely as possible the habits
of the monster. Having satisfied himself on certain points, he then
returned to his chateau of Gozon in the province of Languedoc. The
point which Gozon had wished to determine was in what portion of its
body was the serpent vulnerable; and he had convinced himself that
the belly of the creature was unprotected by scales. He accordingly
modelled in wood as exact a representation of the serpent as he could
accomplish, colouring it the same as the original; the belly of the
model was constructed of leather. He then trained some large and
ferocious hounds, at a certain signal, to dash in under the model
and fix their teeth in its leathern underpart. For months did the
ingenious knight persevere with the training of his dogs, himself on
horseback in full armour cheering them to the assault. At last he
considered them to be perfect in their parts, and, taking two servants
and the hounds with him, returned to Rhodes. Avoiding everybody, he
caused his arms to be carried to a small church in the neighbourhood
of Mount St. Etienne by his servants. The knight went into the church,
where he passed some time in prayer, recommending his soul to God in
the enterprise which he was about to undertake.
He then donned his armour and mounted his horse, ordering his servants,
if he were killed, to return to France but if he succeeded in
killing the serpent to come at once to him, or to aid him if he were
wounded. He then rode off in the direction of the marsh accompanied
by his hounds. No sooner did the serpent hear the ring of bit and
stirrup-iron, the trampling of the charger and the baying of the
hounds, than it issued forth with wide-open slavering jaws and terrible
burning eyes to slay and to devour. Gozon, recommending his soul to
his Maker, put spurs to his horse and charged. But his lance shivered
on the hide of the serpent as though it had struck a stone wall. His
horse, mad with terror at the sight and the foul odour of the serpent,
plunged so furiously as to unseat him. He fell to the ground, uttering
as he did so his call to the hounds; had it not been for these faithful
auxiliaries he would instantly have been slain, but they rushed in and,
fastening their teeth in the belly of the serpent, caused it to writhe
and twist in its anguish. Instantly Gozon was upon his feet again,
and, watching his opportunity, plunged his sword into the exposed
vitals of his enemy. Mortally wounded, the serpent flung itself high
in the air with a convulsive effort, and falling backwards pinned the
knight to the ground beneath its enormous bulk. The servants, who had
been the horrified spectators of this terrific conflict, now rushed to
the assistance of their master, and succeeded in freeing him from his
unpleasant predicament. Gozon, they thought, was dead, but upon dashing
some water in his face he opened his eyes, to behold the pleasing
spectacle of his monstrous enemy lying by his side a corpse.
Naturally elated, he returned to Rhodes, where he became on the instant
the popular hero; for who could say or do enough for the man who had
slain the serpent. He was conducted in triumph to the palace of the
Grand Master by his fellow knights, but here a remarkably unpleasant
surprise was in store for him. Very austerely did Helion de Villeneuve
regard the triumphant warrior, and stern and uncompromising was the
voice in which he asked him how he had dared to contravene the express
order of his Grand Master by going forth to combat with the serpent?
Calling a Council immediately the implacable de Villeneuve, in spite of
all entreaties, deprived Gozon de Dieu-Donné of the habit of a knight.
“What,” said this just and severe disciplinarian, “is the death of this
monster, what indeed do the deaths of the islanders matter, compared
with the maintenance of the discipline of this Order of which I am the
unworthy chief?”
But Helion de Villeneuve was of too wise and kindly a nature to
make his decree absolute, and having thus vindicated his authority he
shortly afterwards released Gozon and made him happy by his praises and
more material benefits.
The Abbé de Vertot tells us that the learned Bochart argues that the
Phoenicians gave to this island the name of Gefirath-Rod (from whence
the name “Rhodes”), or the Isle of the Serpents, and that when the
Romans were at war with the Carthaginians Attilius Regulus slew a
monster in the island of Rhodes the skin of which measured one hundred
feet. Thevenot, in his Travels published in 1637, states that he saw
the head of Gozon’s serpent still attached to one of the gates of the
town of Rhodes, and that it was as large as the head of a horse.
Upon the death of Helion de Villeneuve in 1346, a Chapter of the Order
was held as usual to elect his successor. When it came to the turn of
the Commander Gozon de Dieu-Donné to speak, he said:
“In entering this conclave I made a solemn vow not to propose any
knight whom I did not consider to be most worthy of this exalted
office, and animated by the best intentions for the glory and
well-being of the Order. After considering carefully the state of
the Christian world, of the wars which we are perpetually obliged to
wage against the infidel, the firmness and vigour necessary for the
maintenance of discipline, I declare that I find no person so capable
of governing our ‘Religion’ as myself.”
He then proceeded to speak in a purely impersonal tone of the
magnificent services which he had rendered, not forgetting the
famous episode of the serpent, and drew their attention to the fact
that the late Grand Master had constituted him, Gozon, his principal
lieutenant. He ended: “You have already tried my government, you know
well that which you may hope to expect. I believe that in all justice I
shall receive your suffrages.”
Naturally the assemblage was stupefied at hearing a man thus recommend
himself; on reflection, however, they decided that he had spoken
no less than the truth, and Gozon de Dieu-Donné, “the hero of the
serpent,” became twenty-sixth Grand Master of the Order. He died in
1353, when he was succeeded by Pierre de Cornillan, and upon his tomb
were graven these words: “Cy Gist le Vainqueur du Dragon.”
In the years 1480 and 1485 under the Grand Master Pierre D’Aubusson,
Rhodes withstood two great sieges from the Turks. The first of these is
described at length by the knight Merri Dupuis “temoin oculaire” who
sets down: “Je, Mary Dupuis gros et rude de sens et de entendement je
veuille parler et desscrire au plus bref que je pourray et au plus pres
de la verite selon que je pen voir a lueil.” The description of that of
1485 is written by another eye-witness, the Commandeur de Bourbon, to
whom “ma semble bon et condecent a raison declairer premierement les
causes qui out incite mon poure et petit entendement a faire cest petit
oeuvre.”
But we have no space to follow these gallant Knights, and it must
suffice to say that on both occasions, after incredible exertions
and terrible slaughter on both sides, the attacks of the Turks were
eventually repulsed.
It was reserved for Soliman the Magnificent to finally vanquish the
Knights and to expel them from Rhodes; from July 1522 until January
1523 the Knights under the heroic Villiers de L’Isle Adam maintained an
all unequal struggle against the vast hosts of the Crescent, which were
perpetually reinforced. At last, on January 1st, 1523, the Knights,
by virtue of a treaty with Soliman, which was honourably observed on
both sides, evacuated the island in which they had been established for
nearly two hundred and twenty years.
By favour of Charles V. the Knights on October 26th, 1530, took charge
of the islands of Malta and Gozo, and established themselves therein;
still under the Grand Mastership of L’Isle Adam, whose sword and helmet
are still religiously kept in a small church in Vittoriosa, just at the
back of the Admiral Superintendent’s house in the present dockyard.
The knights fortified the islands and there abode, until in 1565 the
Ottoman returned once more to the attack.
It may be said that heroism is a relative term, that it has many uses
and applications all equally truthful. On the side of mere physical
courage almost every man who took part in that memorable siege of
Malta in the year 1565 may have been said to have earned the title of
hero. No man’s foot went back; no man’s courage quailed; no man’s face
blanched when called upon to face perils so appalling that they meant
an almost inevitable and speedy death; this was true or Christian
and Moslem alike. The death-roll on either side was so tremendous as to
prove this contention up to the hilt. From May 18th to September 8th,
1565—that is to say, in one hundred and thirteen days—thirty thousand
Moslems and eight thousand Christians perished—an average of some three
hundred and thirty-six persons per day. In that blazing torrid heat
the sufferings of those who survived from day to day must have been
accentuated beyond bearing by the myriads of unburied corpses by which
they lived surrounded; and that the contending forces were not swept
away by pestilence is an extraordinary marvel.
[Illustration: CARRACK IN WHICH THE KNIGHTS ARRIVED AT MALTA, 1530.]
In many, nay, in most campaigns, personal feeling enters but little
into the contest. Nationality strikes against nationality, army against
army, or navy against navy; but no burning hatred of his adversary
animates the breast of the combatant on either side; it may even be
said that frequently some pity for the vanquished is felt, when all is
over, by the side which has conquered. At Malta the element of actual
personal individual hatred was the mainspring by which the combatants
on both sides were moved; each regarded the other as an infidel, the
slaying of whom was the sacrifice most acceptable to the God they
worshipped. “Infidel” was the term which each hurled at the other; to
destroy the infidel, root and branch, was the act imposed upon those
whose faith was the one only passport to a blessed eternity, and those
who fell in the strife, whether Christian or Moslem, felt assured that
for them the gates of heaven stood wide open.
Great as were those others who perished, faithful to the death as
were those noble knights who died to a man in the culminating agony
of St. Elmo, adroit, resourceful, master of himself and others as was
the famous Dragut, there is one name and one alone that shines like
a beacon light upon a hill-top when we think of the siege of Malta.
Jean Parisot de la Valette, whose name is enshrined for ever in that
noble city which crowns Mount Sceberass at the present day, was the
forty-eighth Grand Master of the Noble Order of the Knights of Saint
John of Jerusalem the charter for which, contained in the original Bull
of Pope Paschal II., dated 1113 (in which the Holy Father took the
Order under his special protection), may be seen to this day in the
armoury of the palace at Valetta. At the time when the supreme honour
was conferred upon him, in the year 1557, he had passed through every
grade of the Order: as soldier, captain, general, Counsellor, Grand
Cross: in all of them displaying a valour, a piety, a self-abnegation
beyond all praise, A man of somewhat austere manner, he exacted from
others that which he gave himself—a whole-hearted devotion to the Order
to which he had consecrated his life. Fearing no man in the Council
Chamber, even as he feared no foe in the field, he ever spoke his
mind in defence of that which he deemed to be right. Proud, with the
dignity becoming a man of his ancient lineage, he merged all personal
haughtiness in the zeal he felt in upholding the rights and privileges
of that splendid confederation of knights of the best blood in Europe
over which he had been called upon to preside at the mature age of
sixty-three. There is no instance in history of any man more absolutely
single-minded than La Valette; that in which he believed he cherished
with an ardour almost incredible in these days, and that the sword of
the Lord had been confided into his hand for the utter extermination
and extirpation of the Moslem heresy was the leading feature in his
creed. That he had been advanced to a dignity but little less than
royal in achieving the Grand Mastership was but as dust in the balance
to him compared with the opportunities which it gave him to harry his
life-long foes; and he who had known so well how to obey throughout all
his youth and manhood was now to prove, in the most emphatic manner,
that he had learned how to command. In all those terrible hundred
and thirteen days during which the siege lasted there was none to be
compared to him. As occasion occurred this man’s soul rose higher and
ever higher; beseeching, imploring, commanding, by sheer force of
example did he point out the way to the weaker spirits by whom he was
surrounded.
To speak of weaker spirits in connection with the siege of Malta seems
almost an insult; these gallant knights and soldiers were only so in
comparison with their leader. Twice during the siege of St, Elmo did
the garrison send to La Valette and represent that the place was no
longer tenable; but Garcia de Toledo, Viceroy of Sicily for Philip of
Spain, was writing specious letters instead of sending reinforcements,
and every moment gained was of importance. Coldly did La Valette remind
the Knights of their vows to the Order, and when renewed assurances
came that it was only a matter of a few hours before they should be
overwhelmed he replied that others could be found to take their places,
that he, as Grand Master, would come in person to show them how to die.
A passion of remorse overcame these noble gentlemen, who, thus nerved
by the indomitable spirit of their chief, died to the last man in the
tumbled ruins of that charnel-house which had once been a fortress.
La Valette was ready to die; there was no man in all that garrison so
ready. With pike and sword this veteran of seventy-one years of age
was ever at the post of the greatest danger, repelling the assaults
of Janissaries and corsairs, fighting with the spirit of the youngest
among the Knights in the breaches rent in the walls of Il Borgo. In
vain did his comrades try to prevent him from this perpetual exposure;
in vain did they point out that the value of his life outnumbered that
of an army. He was very gentle with these remonstrances, but quite
firm. There were plenty as good as he to take his place should he fall,
he insisted; till that time came it was his duty to inspire all by his
example, to show to the simplest soldier that he was cared for by his
Grand Master.
As things went from bad to worse, when Il Borgo became in little better
case than had St. Elmo before it, La Valette never hesitated, never
looked back, never ceased to hope that the sluggard Garcia de Toledo
might send relief; and, if he did not, then would they all perish with
arms in their hands, as had their brethren across that narrow strip of
water who had held St. Elmo to the last man. What man or woman can read
without something of a lump coming in their throat of those noble
words of the Grand Master in the last few days of the siege when all
had utterly abandoned hope?
Grimed, emaciated, covered with sweat and blood and dust, did La
Valette move from post to post exhorting and encouraging his soldiers.
So few had the gallant company of the Knights become that command was
necessarily delegated to the under-officers; yet who among them did not
find fresh courage and renewed strength when that great noble, the head
of the Order, stood by their sides and spoke thus to them as man to
man?—
“My brothers, we are all servants of Jesus Christ; and I feel assured
that if I and all these in command should fall you will still fight on
for the honour of the Order and the love of our Holy Church.”
We have to think of what it all meant, we have dimly to try and realise
the burden which was laid upon this man, before we come to a right
conception, not only of what he endured but the terrible sacrifices
he was called upon to make. Here was no man of iron lusting for blood
and greedy of conquest for the sake of the vain applause of men; but
one full of human love and affection for those among whom he had lived
all the days of his life. Upon him was laid the charge of upholding
the honour of the Order, the majesty of the God whom he served. To
this end he doomed to certain death those brethren of his in St. Elmo,
his own familiar friends, reminding them that it was their duty so to
die, while his heart was breaking with the agony of this terrible
decision, which no weaker man could have given. When his beloved nephew
was slain, together with another gallant youth, he smiled sadly and
said that they had only travelled the road which they all had to tread
in a few days; that he grieved as much for the one as for the other. In
speaking of this man, it may truly be said that there is no character
in history more elevated; there is none which shows us the picture of a
more perfect, gentle, and valiant knight.