Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/701

Rh with downcast air and stripped of the insignia of their rank, he presented himself before the victorious general. The interview was brief, and, so far as he was concerned, highly unsatisfactory. The requests which he preferred were refused, and he himself treated with scant courtesy.

Von Hompesch had put forward a claim to all the plate and jewellery belonging to the palace, and attached to the office of Grand-Master; but the demand was refused, upon the plea that it was proposed to make him an allowance of 600,000 francs as an equivalent. Of this sum 300,000 were retained for the ostensible purpose of paying his creditors, who were very numerous, and who, since he had been stripped of his revenues, were becoming clamorous for their dues. Of the balance, 200,000 were paid in bills on the French treasury, and 100,000 only in cash. At his special request he was permitted to carry away with him the three relics which the Order had always held in such high veneration, namely, a piece of the true cross, of which it had originally become possessed in the Holy Land, the right hand and arm of St. John the Baptist, and the miraculous picture of Our Lady of Philermo. These, however, were stripped of their valuable cases and ornaments before they were handed over to him. Von Hompesch embarked at two o’clock in the morning of the 18th June, on board a merchantman bound for Trieste, and was escorted by a French frigate. The suite who accompanied him consisted of the two bailiffs of Lombardy, Montauroux, and Suffrein de St. Tropez, the commander de Lecondas, his grand-chamberlain, and seven other knights, with two servants-at-arms.

A general dispersion of the fraternity now took place. Von Hompesch for a short time resided at Trieste, where he published a lengthy justification of his conduct, which had but little effect in removing the stain cast on his reputation by his weakness and cowardice. Ha was at length induced to resign his office, and retire into private life. He left Trieste for Montpellier, where he lived in the strictest seclusion, alike shunning and being shunned. He died on the 12th May, 1805, of asthma, a complaint from which he had been of late years a great sufferer. A few months before his death he enrolled himself a member of the fraternity of Blue Penitents of Mont-