Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/165

Rh which he was accused of having squandered, partly to support his own ostentatious display and luxurious mode of living, and partly by bestowing them with a lavish hand on the crowd of sycophantic favourites by whom he was surrounded. To this summons Villaret paid not the slightest heed, asserting that his position placed him completely above the jurisdiction of the council. As it would have been impossible to adjudicate upon his alleged delinquencies in his absence, the mal-contents were sorely puzzled to decide what should be their next step. At length a knight, named Maurice de Pagnac, possibly not without an eye to future contingencies, proposed that Villaret should be boldly seized within the precincts of his pa) ace, and brought vi et armis before the council.

The execution of such a measure was, it was felt, no easy matter, owing to the difficulty of approaching the person of the Grand-Master, who was invariably surrounded, not only by his own favourites among the fraternity, but also by a compact body-guard of mercenaries which he retained in his pay. The attempt was therefore deemed impossible by day, since the certain result of such a step must have been a sanguinary and probably a fruitless contest. The only feasible project was to make the seizure secretly by night, when the attendance on his person was naturally much reduced. One of his valets was bribed to undertake the conduct of the affair, and he guaranteed to admit a body of the conspirators into the sleeping apartment of the Grand-Master, where the capture might easily be effected. All being now satisfactorily arranged, nothing remained but to fix the moment for carrying the plot into execution. The conspirators, however, found that a traitor is a double-edged tool cutting both ways, and not more to be trusted by his new employers than by his original master. Whether the valet was over-bribed to reveal the conspiracy, or whether he was in reality, as has been alleged, so far attached to his lord as to have shrunk from carrying out the views of his enemies, it is very certain that he betrayed the plot to Villaret, who was thus put on his guard.

The promptitude and boldness of his character stood him in good stead at this critical moment. He was, therefore, not long in forming a decision as to the line of conduct