Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/36

 to devotees, was carried away by the invaders. It was attacked for the ninth time by the Saracens under Khaled, 635, when, after a siege of four months' duration, a capitulation was agreed on, in virtue of which the city fell into his hands. Whilst in the possession of the Saracens it changed masters several times, until at length it was wrested from them by the crusading army in the manner already told.

One of the first steps taken by Godfrey after assuming the reins of government in the captured city, was to visit the Hospital of St. John. He here found a number of wounded men, members of the crusading army, who had been received into the hospital, and were being nursed with the most tender solicitude. In proof of the devotion and religious zeal which animated the brotherhood at this time it is recorded that whilst the funds of the institution were expended without stint in the provision of delicate and nutritious diet for the sufferers so charitably entertained within its walls, the food of the brethren themselves was of the coarsest and most economical description. Godfrey was so much struck with the admirable manner in which the establishment was conducted by Gerard, and with the benefits which it had conferred upon his suffering army, that he at once endowed it with his manor of Montboise, in Brabant. His example was followed by several of the other leaders of the army who had, either in their own persons or in those of their followers, experienced the kindness and hospitality of the Order. The main object for which the expedition had been formed having been attained, and the Holy City rescued from the hands of the infidel, the greater portion of the crusading army returned to Europe. The fame of the hospital was by their means spread abroad in every direction, and in consequence numerous additional benefactions accrued to it, until eventually there was scarcely a province in which the Hospital of St. John did not stand possessed of manorial rights.

The ranks of the Hospitallers received at the same time a large augmentation by the secession of many of the Crusaders from their martial career, who, yielding themselves up entirely to a life of religion, joined the charitable fraternity. Under these circumstances, and actuated by a laudable desire to secure the