Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/252

226 resigning in his favour all their own authority. Thus armed, de Lastic made but short work of the recusants. He pursued with the utmost rigour those who persisted in disobedience, and even went the length of stripping thorn of their habit and expelling them from the Order. At the end of three years he was enabled to resign his extraordinary powers, having enforced complete submission and restored perfect unanimity and obedience throughout the fraternity. Well was it for them that at this crisis they were governed by one in whom they could venture to vest such autocratic powers, and who knew so well how to wield that authority to their advantage.

The failure of the attack on Rhodes in the preceding year. had led the sultan of Egypt to abandon for the time further hostile operations, and the chapter-general already alluded to had directed that every effort should be made to secure a permanent peace. The agent in this affair was James Cœur, a French merchant, who became afterwards treasurer to Charles VII. He succeeded in negotiating matters so favourably that he was able to summon an envoy from Rhodes to conclude the treaty. This envoy, on his return from Alexandria, after having signed the terms of peace, brought back with him a number of Christian slaves, whom the sultan had released in honour of the occasion. Among the records is a decree dated on the 8th February, 1446, directing Raymond d’Arpajon, grand-prior of St. Gilles, to repay to James Cœur the expenses he had incurred in the transaction.

It was pointed out at the commencement of this chapter that on the death of Timour his empire fell into a state of disintegration. The four sons of Bajazet took advantage of the difficulties caused by the disputed succession amongst the children of Timour. By degrees they each succeeded in wresting some portion of their late father’s empire from the hands of the Tartars. The three elder, after short and disturbed reigns, fell victims to their internecine warfare, and Mahomet I., the youngest, found himself upon the death of the last, whom he himself had murdered, in undisputed possession of his father’s territories. After a reign of eight years he was succeeded (1421) by his son Mourad II., under whose sway the Ottoman power became even more extended