Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/448

416 a vice of D’Omedes, nor can he be altogether acquitted of nepotism; still in neither particular was he worse than many of his predecessors, nor would he, but for the circumstances in which he was placed, have been treated with the virulent abuse which has been poured upon him. During his later years extreme old age rendered him personally almost irresponsible for the acts of his government, and the 0-rand-Master, who sank into the tomb a dotard of ninety years of age, was a very different man from the hero who had so bravely held the post of Spain during the siege of Rhodes, and who lost an eye in that memorable struggle.

The general feeling at the death of D’Omedes was that Strozzi, the grand-prior of Capua, should be his successor, but it having been pointed out to the council that he would probably use the power thus intrusted to him in furtherance of his private quarrels, which were many and bitter, the choice ultimately fell on the grand-hospitaller Claude de la Sangle, who was at the time acting as envoy at Rome. This nomination, so contrary to his anticipations, gave dire offence to Strozzi. He at once resigned the command of the galleys, and set sail on a private adventure of his own, in which he was accompanied by several of the younger knights, who expected to earn renown under so distinguished a leader. Their anticipations were never destined to be realized, as Strozzi lost his life almost immediately afterwards before a small fort in Tuscany. Ills successor in the command of the galleys was La Valette, in which position that gallant leader added to the reputation he had already won.

During the first year of La Sangle’s rule an evanescent prospect sprang up of the restoration of the English langue. The death of the young king, Edward VI., having placed his sister Mary on the throne of England, that princess being a zealous Roman Catholic, at once despatched ambassadors to Malta to treat for the revival of the English langue, promising at the same time the restoration of its sequestered lands. To this proposition the council of the Order naturally gave a prompt and joyful assent, and for a few brief years it seemed as though that venerable langue was about to resume its former status. But this was not to be. The death of Mary crushed