KNIGHTHOOD. 
794 
combat. The knight ufed this exercife every day for 
feveral months ; and, as foon as he found his dogs perfect 
in this way of fighting, he returned to Rhodes. Immedi¬ 
ately upon his arrival, and without communicating his de- 
fign to any one, he caufed his arms to be carried private-- 
ly to a church fituated on the top of the mountain of St. 
Stephen, where he came attended only by two fervants, 
whom he had brought from France. He went into the 
church ; and, after recommending himfelf to the Al¬ 
mighty, took his arms, mounted on horfeback, and or¬ 
dered his fervants, if he perilhed in the combat, to return 
to France ; but to come up to him if they perceived he 
had either killed the ferpent or was wounded himfelf. He 
then went down the mountain with his two dogs, ad¬ 
vanced Straight to the marfh, and the haunt of the ferpent, 
who, at the noife that he made, ran with open mouth, 
and eyes darting fire, to devour him. Gozon gave him a 
ftroke with his lance, which the thicknefs and hardnefs of 
the fcales made of no effeit. He was preparing to redou¬ 
ble his ftroke ; but his horfe, frighted with the hilling and 
fmell of the ferpent, refufed to advance, retired back, and 
leapt afide, and would have been the occafion of his maf- 
ter’s deftruflion, if he with great prefence of mind had 
not thrown himfelf off; and then, taking his fword in 
hand, and attended by his faithful dogs, he immediately 
comes up to the horrible beaft, and gives him feveral 
ftrokes in different places ; but the hardnefs of the fcales 
hindered them from entering. The furious animal, with a 
lafh of his tail, threw him on the ground, and would infal¬ 
libly have devoured him, if his two dogs, according as 
they had been taught, had not feized the ferpent by the 
belly, which they tore and mangled with their teeth, 
without his being able, though he ftruggled with all his 
might, to force them to quit their hold. 
The knight, having thus time to recover himfelf, gets 
tip, and, joining his two dogs, thruits his fword up to the 
hilt in a place which was not defended by fcales. With¬ 
drawing his fword from the large wound, a deluge of blood 
flowed out. The monfter, wounded to death, falls upon 
the knight, and beats him down a fecond time, and would 
have ftifled him by the prodigious weight and bulk of its 
body, if the two fervants, who had been fpeiftators of the 
combat, had not, feeing the ferpent dead, run in to the re¬ 
lief of their mafter. They found him in a fwoon, and 
thought him alf'o dead ; but, when they had with great dif¬ 
ficulty drawn him from under the ferpent, to give him 
loom to breathe, in cafe he were alive, they took off his 
helmet, and, after throwing a little water upon his face, 
he at laft opened his eyes. The firft fpeftacle and the moft 
agreeable one that could offer itfelf to his fight was that 
of his enemy flain, which was attended with the fatisfac- 
tion of having fucceeded in fo difficult an enterprife, in 
which many of his brother-knights had loft their lives. 
No foontr was the fame of the viftory and the ferpent’s 
death proclaimed in the city, but a crowd of inhabitants 
thronged out to meet him. The knights conducted him 
in triumph to the grand matter's palace : but in the midft 
of their acclamations the conqueror was infinitely furprifed 
that the grand mafter, looking upon him with indigna¬ 
tion, demanded of him if he did not know the orders he 
had given againfl attacking that dangerous beaft, and if he 
thought they might be violated with impunity. Imme¬ 
diately this ftriift obferver of dii’cipline, without vouch- 
fafing to hear him, or being moved in the leaft by the 
interceffions of the knights, lent him to prifon. He next 
convened the council, where he reprefented that the order 
could by no means difpenfe with inflkftinga rigorous pu- 
nifhment on fo notorious a difobedience; that difobedience 
was more prejudicial to difcipline than the life of feveral 
ferpents would have been to the cattle and inhabitants of 
that quarter of the ifland; and, like another Manlius, he 
declared his opinion was that that vibtory fhould be made 
fatal to the conqueror. But the council prevailed that he 
fhould only be deprived of the habit of the order. In 
fliort, the unfortunate knight was ignominioufly degraded, 
and there was but a fliort interval between his victory and 
this kind of puniffiment which he found more cruel and 
fevere than death itfelf. However, the grand mafter re¬ 
turned foon to his natural temper, which was full of fweet- 
nefs and good nature ; he reitored Gozon to the habit and 
his favour, and loaded him with kindnefles. The head of 
the monfter was fet up over the gates of the city, as a mo¬ 
nument of Gozon’s vi£!ory.” 
After a long uninterrupted poffeffion of this ifland, the 
knights of this order were driven away by the Turks in 
the year 1523, and fought a refuge in the ifland of Can- 
dia, but could not long remain there. Thus toffed upon 
the waves of the Mediterranean fea, the order, like the 
great apoftle, finding at the impotent fury of the (forms 
which the jealoufy of the infidels and other enemies had 
laifed againft them, landed at the place called anciently 
Melita, and now Malta ; and the knights bear, to this day, 
the name of the ifland. Charles V. authorifed their fet- 
tlement there ; and there, to the moment when the de- 
ftrut'tive hand of the French revolution overturned all an¬ 
cient elfablifnments, they dwelt with honour and refpec- 
tability. The grand mafter was called His Eminence, 
and lfyles himfelf “ Mafter of the Hofpital of St. John of 
Jerufalem, and Guardian of the Poor of Our Lord Jefus 
Chrift.” The firft grand mafter Raimond called himfelf 
in his native tongue, Raimondo di Poggio, fervo de’poveri 
di C/iriflo, e cujlode de/lo Spidallc di San Giovanni di Jcrufakm , 
Subfequent and confequently to the French revolution, 
the order loft its immenfe properties in France and Italy; 
and, by a moft lingular concatenation of events, the title 
of grand mafter was affirmed by Paul I. emperor of Ruf- 
fia, who made feveral knights in the fhort time he was 
poffeffed of that honour. Whether this long-refpecled 
order off knighthood will ever rile from its alhes, is an 
event to which no human forefight can reach. 
The prefent badge conlifts of a gold crofs of eight (harp 
points, enamelled white, and worn by all the knights 02s 
their breafts pendent to a black ribbon. See Plate I. 
The great celebrity of this order has induced us to ex¬ 
patiate a little more on the account which we could get 
from ancient writers. For a more extenfive hiftory, fee 
Vcrtot's Hijioire de Malte, 1 vols. folio; and Boifgelin’s Hif¬ 
tory of Malta, 1810. 
XVIII. The Order of the Ladies of Malta, or 
of St. John of Jerusalem. In the year 1107, in imi¬ 
tation of the order which had eight years before received 
rules and inftitutions from Gerard Didier, Agnes, the 
abbefs of the hofpital of St. Mary Magdalen, which was 
for the female pilgrims, inftituted this fort of order, and 
bound herfelf and her nuns to the fame vows, to wear the 
fame habit, and follow the fame rule, as the Knights Hof- 
pitalers. The badge of the order was the fame, viz. a 
crofs argent upon a red mantle. 
XIX.' The Order of St. Saviour was founded by Al- 
phonfo IV. king of Arragon, in the year 1118. Having been 
very powerfully affifted in his wars againft the Moors By fe¬ 
veral Spaniffi and French noblemen, he cbofe from amongft 
them a certain number, and founded this knightly io- 
ciety ; and, to the end that he might be better enabled to 
drive his enemies out of Saragoffa and the whole of Arra¬ 
gon, he engaged them, upon their honour, to purfue, as 
much as was in their individual power, a lyftem of war¬ 
fare againft them; perfuaded that patriotifm, aided by the 
potent ftimulus of military reward and brotherly emula¬ 
tion, would foon rid him of thofe inveterate adverfaries. 
At the firft inftitution they were enjoined to wear, on a 
white habit, a badge confiding of the figure of God the 
Father, reprefented, according to the fooliffi cuftom of 
thofe ages, with pontifical veftments, and the tiara or tri¬ 
ple crown upon his head. Some years afterwards, the or¬ 
der was reformed ; and for this badge- was fubftituted a 
crofs moline gold, enamelled gules; ordered to be embroi¬ 
dered on the breaft of the uppermoft habit, which was 
white. The collar was compol'ed of three gold chains, 
with a red crols' moline pendent therefrom. See 
Plate I. 
This order was held in very great efteem until the year 
1 16^5, 
