Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/12

 falutin." I have endeavoured to correct this fault, and if I have still strayed now and again into the old path, I would plead in excuse the heroic character of the subject. It is almost impossible to dwell upon the details of so many gallant deeds of war without being sometimes carried away by enthusiasm. I trust, however, that this tendency has been kept within proper control.

One objection I would endeavour to answer in advance; it is, that I have not loaded my pages with references. This is a matter to which much consideration has been given. I do not claim for my book the character of scientific or critical history; it is a simple narrative, I trust careful and impartial, of events which spread over a period of seven centuries. In its preparation everything bearing on the subject, to which I could obtain access, has been minutely studied, and I have often had to decide between apparent contradictions. I have done my best to be just, and to record what I think are the true facts. To be perpetually quoting the authorities for those facts seems to me tedious, and, for the general reader, unnecessary. I may add that whenever recourse has been had to the works of a contemporary writer, I have preferred, where possible, to quote his own words; this seems to me the most honest way of utilizing his information.

I would also observe that as the chronicles on which most of the earlier part of the narrative is based are written in either French or Italian, the proper names, as therein given, have been sometimes woefully distorted. More particularly is this the case where these are English. As far as possible, the attempt has been made to suggest the real names referred to, but in many instances this is practically impossible, and I have been compelled to retain the foreign nomenclature.

In conclusion, I repeat the last paragraph of the preface to the original edition; viz., that "I now leave the result of my labours in the hands of an intelligent public, trusting that the book may meet with clemency, if not with favour, and hoping that I may have supplied a link between the histories of Europe and Asia which will prove of interest to the general reader."