He seized him by the gorget, and hauled him out, but his knees
shook so that he could scarcely walk, and would have slunk back when
released. Sir John raised his mace to slay him as a disgrace to the
Order and our langue, when a ball from one of the Turkish cannon cut him
well nigh in half, so that he fell by the hands of the Turks, and not by
the sword of one of the Order he had disgraced. Fortunately none, save
half a dozen knights of our langue, saw the affair, and you may be sure
we shall say nothing about it; and instead of Rivers' name going down to
infamy, it will appear in the list of those who died in the defence of
Rhodes."

"May God assoil his soul!" Gervaise said earnestly. "'Tis strange that
one of gentle blood should have proved a coward. Had he remained at
home, and turned courtier, instead of entering the Order, he might have
died honoured, without any one ever coming to doubt his courage."

"He would have turned out bad whatever he was," Ralph said
contemptuously; "for my part, I never saw a single good quality in him."

Long before Gervaise was out of hospital, the glad tidings that
D'Aubusson would recover, in spite of the prognostications of the leech,
spread joy through the city, and at about the same time that Gervaise
left the hospital the grand master was able to sit up. Two or three days
afterwards he sent for Gervaise.

"I owe my life to you, Sir Gervaise," he said, stretching out his thin,
white hand to him as he entered. "You stood by me nobly till I fell,
for, though unable to stand, I was not unconscious, and saw how
you stood above me and kept the swarming Moslems at bay. No knight
throughout the siege has rendered such great service as you have done.
Since I have been lying unable to move, I have thought of many things;
among them, that I had forgotten to give you the letters and presents
that came for you after you sailed away. They are in that cabinet;
please bring them to me. There," he said, as Gervaise brought a bulky
parcel which the grand master opened, "this letter is from the Holy
Father himself. That, as you may see from the arms on the seal, is from
Florence. The others are from Pisa, Leghorn, and Naples. Rarely, Sir
Gervaise, has any potentate or knight earned the thanks of so many great
cities. These caskets accompanied them. Sit down and read your letters.
They must be copied in our records."

Gervaise first opened the one from the Pope. It was written by his own
hand,