CHAPTER XIV.

The Chivalric Order of St. John.--Humble Beginning of the Organization.--Hospitallers.--Days of the Crusades.--Motto of the Brotherhood.--Peter Gerard.--The Monk lost in the Soldier. --At Acre, Cyprus, and Rhodes.--Naval Operations.--Siege of Rhodes.--Garden of the Levant.--Piratical Days.--Six Months of Bloodshed.--Awful Destruction of Human Life.--A Famous Fighting Knight.--Final Evacuation of Rhodes by the Order. 254