of being introduced, prayed me that if you
should by any chance have escaped from captivity--and she said that she
was convinced that you would, when you heard that Rhodes was threatened,
assuredly endeavour to escape and to come hither to take a share in the
defence--I was to tell you that she trusted you still bore her gage, and
that she, on her part, had held fast to the promise she made you."

"I still have her gage, Viscount; for though I was for a long time
deprived of it, I succeeded in regaining it when I made my escape,"
Gervaise said quietly; and De Monteuil at once turned the conversation
to another topic.

Gervaise found that no attempt was to be made to take the offensive
against the Turks, and that they were to be permitted to advance against
the city without interference. Many of the more fiery spirits among the
knights chafed at this prohibition. The records of the past showed that
armies as large as that of Mahomet had suffered defeat at the hands
of bodies of knights no stronger than that gathered for the defence of
Rhodes. D'Aubusson, however, knew that between the undisciplined hordes
that gathered in countless numbers to oppose the crusaders, and the
troops of Mahomet, well trained in warfare, who had borne his standard
victoriously in numerous battles, there was but little comparison. They
were commanded, too, by Paleologus, a general of great capacity. Under
such circumstances, although victory might be possible, the chances of
defeat would be far greater, and while victory could be only won at a
great sacrifice of life, defeat would mean annihilation to the garrison,
and the loss of the city upon whose fortifications such an enormous
amount of money and labour had been expended.

On the other hand, he felt perfectly confident that the city could be
successfully defended, and that at a cost of life far less than would
be attained by a victory in the open field, while the blow that would
be inflicted upon the prestige and power of the enemy, by being
ignominiously compelled to retire to their ships, after the failure of
all their attacks, would be as great as if their army had been defeated
in the field. Therefore the grand master, with the full assent of his
leaders, turned a deaf ear to the entreaties of the younger knights,
that they might be allowed to make a sortie. He calmly waited behind
the formidable defences he had for the past ten years been occupied in
perfecting, in anticipation of t