Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/410

380 weal. In doing the latter he seems to have acted with more prudence than chivalry.

L’Isle Adam hastened to quit Candia as soon as possible, being anxious to place himself in close proximity to the court of Rome. He therefore selected the port of Messina as the next point of rendezvous. The larger vessels proceeded there direct, under command of the Turcopolier, William Weston, whilst he himself, with the great mass of his followers, pursued his course more leisurely. In token of the loss his Order had sustained, he no longer suffered the White Cross banner to be displayed, but in its stead he substituted an ensign bearing the effigy of the Virgin Mary, with her dead Son in her arms, and beneath it the motto, “Afflictis spes mea rebus.”

The Grand-Master was welcomed by the Sicilian authorities with the same hospitality as had been displayed in Candia, and the viceroy announced that the emperor invited the members of the fraternity to make their residence in the island for as long a time as they found convenient.

L’Isle Adam’s greatest fear had been that his knights, finding themselves deprived of their convent home, might follow the fatal example of the Templars and retire into their various European commanderies. One of his first steps, therefore, after quitting Rhodes, had been to solicit special authority from the Pope to prevent the dispersion of the homeless wanderers. Adrian, who recognized the wisdom of the request, lost no time in acceding thereto, so that when L’Isle Adam entered the port of Messina he found already awaiting him a bull, in which the Pope, under the severest penalties, enjoined the members of the Order to remain with him wherever he might lead them.

Having established a Hospital, and taken such steps as were in his power to provide for the comfort of his followers, L’Isle Adam caused a rigid investigation to be made into the reason for the non-arrival of reinforcements during the siege. He had himself upon several occasions despatched envoys from the island to hurry on these much-required succours, but none had ever returned. Now that he found them all reassembled at Messina, he called for a full explanation of their conduct. The cause alleged was the unprecedentedly tempestuous state