Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/633

Rh had been preferred, he acquitted the bishop’s deputy of all blame, and called upon the Grand-Master and council, under pain of anathema, to make due reparation for the indignities to which he had been subjected. Resistance was in vain; de Vignacourt was compelled to submit, and to restore the churchman to his position. Similar scenes occurred with the grand-inquisitor, the incessant disputes which arose with these turbulent dignitaries rendering the office of Grand-Master by no means a bed of roses.

The name of de Vignacourt has in Malta become inseparably connected with the aqueduct which he caused to be made. Destitute as the towns of Valetta and Vittoriosa are of all natural springs, the inhabitants were compelled, before his time, to depend for their water supply entirely upon excavated tanks; and consequently were, in the event of a dry winter, sorely distressed during the following summer. To obviate this evil, de Vignacourt constructed a very fine aqueduct, carried principally on arches, which brought water into Valetta from some springs in the Benjemma hills, near the Città Vecchia. This aqueduct is upwards of nine miles in length, and carries the water into every part of the city, supplying numerous fountains which succeeding Grand-Masters have erected in various convenient localities. A worthier monument this than the most costly sculptured tomb. The gratitude of posterity will recall the memory of de Vignacourt so long as Valetta exists, as the founder of one of the most useful and enduring works which that city possesses.

Among the incidents of this time worth recording was the reception of Alexander Monsieur, the illegitimate son of Henry IV. by Gabrielle d’Estrees, into the Order, on the 2nd of February, 1604. For the purpose of this reception Henry had summoned to Paris the grand-priors both of France and Champagne, and arrangements were made for the ceremony to take place in the church of the Temple, then one of the most important in the possession of the fraternity. Numerous commanders and knights had flocked into Paris from the various provincial establishments in France, and everything was done to enhance the splendour of the function. On arrival at the Temple, the little prince was handed by