urope to bear alone the brunt of Moslem invasion.
All that men can do we shall do. As long as it is possible to resist,
we shall resist. When further resistance becomes impossible, we shall, I
trust, act as we did before.

"We were driven from Palestine, only to fortify ourselves at Rhodes.
If we are driven from Rhodes, we shall, I feel assured, find a home
elsewhere, and again commence our labours. The nearer we are to Europe
the more hope there is that Christendom will aid us, for they will more
generally understand that our defeat would mean the laying open of the
shores of the Mediterranean, from Turkey to Gibraltar, to the invasion
of the Moslems. However, comrades, this is all in the future. Our share
is but in the present, and I trust the flag of the Order will float over
Rhodes as long, at least, as the lifetime of the youngest of us, and
that we may bequeath the duty of upholding the Cross untarnished to
those who come after us; and we can then leave the issue in God's
hands."

All listened respectfully to the words of their leader, although his
opinion fell like cold water upon the fiery zeal and high hopes of his
hearers. The possibility of their losing Rhodes had never once entered
into the minds of the majority of them. It was likely that ere long they
might be called upon to stand a siege, but, acquainted as they were with
the strength of the place--its deep and seemingly impassable moat, its
massive walls, and protecting towers and bastions--it had seemed to them
that Rhodes was capable of withstanding all assaults, however numerous
the foe, however oft repeated the invasion. The bailiff was, as all
knew, a man of dauntless courage, of wide experience and great judgment,
and that he should believe that Rhodes would, although not in their
time, inevitably fall, brought home to them for the first time the fact
that their fortress was but an outpost of Europe, and one placed so
distant from it that Christendom, in the hour of peril, might be unable
to furnish them with aid. As the bailiff walked away, there was silence
for a short time, and then Sir Giles Trevor said cheerfully, "Well, if
it lasts our time we need not trouble our heads as to what will take
place afterwards. As the bailiff says, our duty is with the present, and
as we all mean to drive the Turks back when they come, I do not see that
there is any occasion for us to take it to heart, even if it be fated
that the Moslems shall one day walk ove