Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/751

Appendix IX. 713 myned to dye upon them in the felde, rather than be put upon the stakes; for we doubted he would give us our lyves, considering ther wer slam so many of his men; but in the end of the seson they came to parlement Wt vs, and demandyd to know of vs whether we would make any partial and said that the gret Turk was content if we wold geve him the walles of the towne, he would geve us our lyves and our goodes; the commons of the towne hearing this gret profer, came . . . . to the lord master, and said that considering that the walle and strength of the towne ya taken, and the municone spent, and the most of yor knights and men slaine, and ailso seing ther ys no socours redy to come, they determynd ....this partido that the gret Turk geveth us the lyves of our wiffes and children. The lord master hering the opinion of the hole commonalty resolved to take that partido, fell downe allmost ded, and what time he recovervd himsel in sort, he seeing them contenue in the same, at last consented to the same. l)uring the seage the lord master hath ben found in every batall, oft as the worst knight of the religione . . . . knights ther war slain VII hundredth and three, of the Turkes and hundredth and three thousand, they gave us XXII batalles the XX . . . . September was the general batall, from the beginning of the day to Me . . . . without caseing; they gave us batalles in V places of the towne, and ther war slain by their own confessione, at that batalle XXII thousand; the gret turk war ther in parson, and in the batall we had slain three score . . . . upon our walles, or ever we war redy to . . . . them; ther war slaine of our part VI thousand and . . . . during the siege tyme. May the Lord have your lordship in his mercifull kepyng. Messena, the XVth day of May. By the hand of your faithfull cervant and bedman, NYCUOLAS ROBERTS. APPENDIX 1X. 1)a’d jf aidhorization to the Pracurators of L’Isle Adam, incJuding the art f donation of the island of Malta and its dependencies to the Order of St. John by Charles V. (Translated from the original Latin.) The brother Philip de Villiers L’Isle d’Adam, humble Master of the Sacred House of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, guardian of the poor in Jesus Christ, and of our conventual home, to our venerable brethren in Christ most dear to us, brother Hugh de Copons, draper of our convent, and commander of our galleys, and to John Boniface, bailill of our bailiwick of Manosca, and receiver-general of our Order: health in the Lord, and diligence in action. Since his most catholic Majesty has, of his