Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/540

506 chaplains. As most of these were natives of the island, who had no opportunity of attaining to the dignities monopolized by the various langues, this decree was received by them with the greatest favour, since it reserved to Maltese ecclesiastics two of the leading offices in the gift of the Order. It had, however, the effect of rendering both the bishop and the prior somewhat less amenable to the authority of their chief than they would have been had they been members of other langues.

Verdala has left several memorials of his sway in the fortifications which he constructed in the island of Gozo, and also by the erection of a country residence near the Città Vecohia for the use of the 0-rand-Masters, and which has ever since borne his name. This tower, on the acquisition of the island by the English in the year 1800, was for some years used as a place of confinement for French prisoners of war, after which it was left unoccupied until Sir William Reid, when governor of Malta, restored it as a summer palace. He added much to the ornamental grounds which surround it. In its immediate vicinity is the Boschetto, a grove which, owing to the scarcity of trees in Malta, is much prized by the inhabitants. Verdala was the first Grand-Master who bore the dignity of Turcopolier in connection with that office. The Pope felt that all immediate prospect of a return of the English nation to Roman Catholicism was at an end, and that, in consequence, there was no further hope of an early revival of the English langue. To prevent the ancient dignity belonging to the conventual bailiwick of England from beooming altogether lost, he attached it to the Grand-Mastership, so as to preserve it intact until brighter days for the langue should arise. It was also in Verdala’s time that the compilation of an authorized history of the Order was intrusted to Bosio, the materials having been collected by Anthony Fossan, who had died in the midst of his labours. Bosio’s work is very voluminous, and, therefore, somewhat tedious; it is, nevertheless, the most trustworthy and authentic narrative extant as far as it extends. The author was nephew to the Anthony Bosio whose able services as a negotiator prior to the last siege of Rhodes have already been detailed.

The successor of Verdala was the castellan of Emposta, Martin Garces. He was seventy years of age at the time of his