Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/173

Rh there, he put to sea, and encountered the enemy near the little island of Episcopia.

The infidel fleet was vastly superior in point of numbers, but laboured under the disadvantage of being inconveniently crowded with the troops intended for the attack on Rhodes. The seamanship of the Hospitallers, and the skill with which they availed themselves of their greater powers of manœuvring more than counterbalanced their numerical inferiority. The day ended in the complete destruction of Orcan’s fleet, many of his galleys being sunk and others captured, so that but few escaped from the scene of strife. This disaster proved such a check on the Turkish power that Gerard was left during the remainder of his government to pursue unmolested the reforms he had commenced. When, therefore, on the landing of Elyon de Villanova, he resigned the reins of office, he had the proud satisfaction of knowing that his lieutenancy had reflected glory on himself, and had been most beneficial to the interests of the fraternity.

It was during the earlier years of Villanova’s residence in Rhodes that the legend is recorded qf the encounter of a Hospitaller with the famous dragon. The tale is so well known, and has been the subject of so much illustration (notably in the series of sketches by the German artist Retach), that it appears almost needless to repeat it in these pages; still, as it was one of the incidents held in the highest estimation amongst the Order in subsequent ages, occupying a prominent place in all their histories, it would be wrong to pass it over in silence. The story runs that a large monster had made its appearance in the island, where it committed the most fearful devastation, carrying off many of the inhabitants, especially women and children, and establishing itself as the terror and scourge of the locality. Numerous attempts had been made to accomplish its destruction, but in vain, many of the bravest knights having lost their lives in their gallant endeavours to rid the island of the pest. The Grand-Master, dismayed at the losses he had sustained in this novel warfare, forbade, under pain of the severest penalties, any further attempts at the destruction of the monster.

One knight alone had the hardihood to dare disobedience to this mandate. Deodato de Gozon, a youth whose dauntless courage scorned to quail beneath this strange foe, and whose