Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/525

Rh qualities which should distinguish the leader of so powerful an institution. In his early life he had been present at the siege of Rhodes, under L’Isle Adam, and had borne an honourable part throughout that long and desperate struggle. From that hour he had followed the fortunes of his brethren in all their wanderings, and had raised himself step by step through the various dignities, until at length he was called to the supreme authority at a time of the most imminent public danger. History has shewn how fully qualified he proved himself to meet the crisis. In his public character he earned a reputation and .a position such as has fallen to the lot of but few. Stern and inflexible, he was rigidly just and honourable. Throughout his long career he proved himself invariably the terror of evildoers, and the implacable enemy to disorder of every kind. By his brethren he was respected even more perhaps than he was loved; his character was undeniably such as to excite the former rather than the latter feeling. The crisis during which he was placed at the head of affairs demanded a man of iron will, and in La Valette that man was found; so long, therefore, as the necessity for such qualifications continued, he was pre-eminently the right man in the right place, and as such received the willing obedience and warm admiration of his fraternity. During the last two years of his life, when peace was once more assured to the convent, that austerity was no longer recognised as a virtue, so that at the time of his death, there were not a few, who having felt the rigidity of his rule to be very irksome, hailed the event as a relief; and, though outwardly mourning the loss of one who had been so brilliant an ornament, were at heart not ill-pleased to look forward to a new government, which might prove less stern and inflexible to their shortcomings.

The decease of La Valette having been expected for some weeks before it took place, various intrigues had been set on foot with reference to a successor. La Valette had himself named Antonio de Toledo, the grand-prior of Castle, but the influence of two grand-crosses, La Motte and Maldonat, secured the election of the grand-admiral Peter de Monte, of the langue of Italy. The lengthened services of this knight had fully entitled him to the post. Indeed, it seems somewhat strange