Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/133

Rh from the power of the Christians, the number of pilgrims who still annually sought its shores remained undiminished; the duty, therefore, continued to devolve on the members of the Order of rendering such protection and escort on the road as lay within their means. For this purpose the galleys which had conveyed them from Acre were brought into requisition, and the brethren, driven from that sacred province to the protection of which they had so long devoted themselves, adopted a fresh career. On the new element which they had chosen, they soon succeeded in demonstrating to the Saracen foe that the flag of the Order was to be as much dreaded when waving over their galleys as it had been of yore in the van of their mailed squadrons. To the various ports of Italy and the Adriatic these new fleets wended their way in the months of March and August. They collected the grateful bands of wandering devotees at these various points of embarkation, and escorted them safely through the perils of the Levant until they landed in Syria, whence, as soon as the cravings of their religious enthusiasm had been satisfied, the brethren accompanied them back to their respective destinations.

Whilst thus employed, they not unfrequently encountered the hostile galleys of the infidel, which, seeming their prey from afar, were always to be found hovering round their would-be victims. These were not long in discovering that their old foe had lost none of his vigour, and was still as dauntless in enterprise as they had known him in past years. The numerous Turkish prizes which speedily graced the harbour of Cyprus were the first promising tokens of that maritime supremacy which was eventually to assert itself on the waters of the Mediterranean. Many of these captures proved to be extremely valuable, and in some cases individual knights had taken advantage of their position to secure for their own private use some of that wealth which should have found its way into the treasury of the Order. Discipline had, in truth, been rudely shaken by the disaster of Acre, and the sudden flash of prosperity which thus developed itself in this first commencement of a new career, seemed still further to loosen the bonds of due restraint. The very island in which the fraternity had established its convent bore amidst its balmy breezes the seeds of that