Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/317

Rh fallen entirely on the public treasury. His residence in France would also become chargeable to the same source, unless an allowance suited to his dignity could be obtained from his brother. The second document was a declaration, drawn up by himself, that his departure from the island and retirement to France were steps taken at his own express desire. The third contained the terms of a treaty of alliance between himself and the knights, which was to take effect should he ever ascend the Ottoman throne. By this he bound himself to pay them an annual contribution of 160,000 gold crowns, to throw open the ports of his empire to their trade, and to release annually 300 Christian slaves, who were to be transferred to Rhodes.

The scene between Djem and D’Aubusson at the moment of parting was touching in the extreme. Casting aside for the moment the proud reserve with which he had hitherto veiled his feelings, he fell at D’Aubusson’s feet in a paroxysm of grief, and bathed them with tears. The Grand-Master was not proof against this ebullition of tenderness and sorrow on the part of the young prince. Whether his keen and politic eye could trace in the dim future some foreshadowing of the miserable fate to which the unfortunate Djem was doomed, or whether his emotion arose merely froni a feeling of sympathy with the distress of his guest, certain it is, as an eye-witness has recorded, that D’Aubusson—the cairn, fearless, intrepid D’Aubusson— wept upon his neck tears of paternal affection. Was this the parting between a prisoner and his jailor? Was this a scene likely to have been enacted had Djem been leaving Rhodes on a compulsory journey to France, and had D’Auhusson been the traitor who was driving him to that step with a view of making for himself political capital with Bajazet? The whole scene has been depicted with such minuteness and detail by Caoursin as to leave no rational doubt on the mind of the unprejudiced reader as to the terms upon which the Ottoman prince and the Grand-Master bade their last adieu to one another.

The departure of Djem in no way affected the treaty of peace which was being arranged between Bajazet and the fraternity. D’Aubusson succeeded in securing for his protégé a revenue of 35,000 gold ducats (about £15,000 of English money). Bajazet further covenanted to pay the knights an