Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/193

Rh his barrack convent was half soldier, half monk. At one time clad in the black mantle of his profession, he might be seen seated by the pallet of the humble and lonely wanderer, breathing into an ear that might perhaps be shortly deaf to all earthly sounds, the consolations of that faith which they both professed, and which had drawn them to that distant spot, so far from all the ties of home and kindred. At another time he might be seen mounted on his gallant steed, clad in burnished steel, hewing a pathway for himself and his brave companions in arms through the serried ranks of the foe. The spirit of the times was in accordance with such strange transformations, and the Order, in thus adapting itself to that spirit, laid the sure foundation of its future grandeur and eminence.

In later years, when the fraternity had established itself in Rhodes, we find great changes rapidly made in their organization, habits, and duties. The hospitals were still maintained and tended, but they no longer constituted an important branch of the knights’ duties. There were no weary and harassed pilgrims to sustain and support; the sick had dwindled into the ordinary casualties incident to the population of a small island. The knight was no more to be seen forming one of that squadron who, under the white cross banner, had so often struck dismay into the hearts of the enemy. Having established himself in his new home, and expeditions for the recovery of the Holy Land having ceased to be practicable. he commenced to fortify his stronghold. Rampart and ditch grew and extended, and the skill of engineering science was exhausted to devise fresh defences, or to improve those already existing. The fortress of Rhodes, and, at a later date, that of Malta, remain imperishable records of the energy, the perseverance, and the skill with which he. carried on his work. Meanwhile he was busily engaged in developing the power of his Order on the sea. The flag of his adoption waved in every corner of the Mediterranean, the terror of the infidel and the bulwark of Christianity. On the waters of this, his new dominion, he trod the deck of his galley every inch a sailor. Few who saw him now would recognize in the hardy mariner of the Levant the warrior-monk of Palestine.

Whilst these changes were taking place in the characteristics