Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/705

CHAPTER XXVI.

1798—1800.

French decrees on assuming possession of the island—Insurrection of the Maltese—Blockade of the French within the fortress—Arrival of the joint British and Portuguese fleet—Details of the blockade—Capitulation of the French—The treaty of Amiens—Eventual transfer of the island to the British—Conclusion.

For several years a feeling of dissatisfaction and insubordination had been growing up between the inhabitants of Malta and the knights of St. John. The new and enticing doctrines promulgated by the revolutionary party in France had enlisted in their favour a great number of the more youthful and enthusiastic of the Maltese. They had been insensibly attracted by the hopes and aspirations which the new régime professed to realize, and they were too distant from the scene of action, and too ill-informed as to the fearful events which had for some years deluged France with blood, to discover the futility of those professions. The time for which they had so earnestly craved had now arrived, and they were at length called on to enjoy the fruit of their labours. The White Cross banner had been lowered from the standard where it had for so many years waved in proud and undisturbed security, and in its place had been raised the tricolour emblem of liberty, equality, and fraternity. The despotism (for despotism it undoubtedly had been) of the Grand-Master was exchanged for the free and enlightened government of republican France, and the inhabitants were now able to look with confidence for the realization of those expectations which had been so sedulously nursed by the emissaries of that country.

Bonaparte did not allow much time to elapse before he