the Knights of Malta.
105
floating on the seas, a body of homeless wanderers, without an aim in view or a purpose to accomplish. Sad fate was this for men who, in their own persons and in those of their predecessors, had done so much for their faith, and had gained such imperishable renown—a renown which the disastrous struggle now brought to such a fatal issue had done much to increase. Amidst the despairing shrieks of the captive inhabitants, and the ferocious shouts of exultation from the victorious Moslem, which were borne on the wings of the wind, they bade adieu to the land they had loved so well, and turning the prows of their galleys westward, they reluctantly wended their sorrowful way towards the island of Cyprus.
