ers
for you to proceed with Caretto to Genoa--unless, indeed, you would
prefer to go to some other locality to recruit your strength."

"I would much rather go with Sir Fabricius, your Highness, than to any
place where I have no acquaintances. I have a great esteem and respect
for him."

"He is worthy of it; there is no nobler knight in the Order, and, had
I fallen, none who could more confidently have been selected to fill
my place. He has an equally high opinion of you, and spoke long and
earnestly concerning you."

A fortnight later the ship carrying the two knights arrived at Genoa.

"I will go ashore at once, Gervaise," Caretto said. "I know not whether
my cousin is in the city or on her estate; if the former, I will stay
with her for a day or two before going off to my commandery, and of
course you will also be her guest. I hope she will be here, for methinks
we shall both need to refit our wardrobes before we are fit to appear in
society."

"Certainly I shall," Gervaise agreed; "for, indeed, I find that my gala
costume suffered a good deal during my long absence; and, moreover,
although I have not increased in height, I have broadened out a good
deal since I was here two years ago."

"Yes; you were a youth then, Gervaise, and now you are a man, and one
of no ordinary strength and size. The sun of Tripoli, and your labours
during the siege, have added some years to your appearance. You are, I
think, little over twenty, but you look two or three years older. The
change is even greater in your manner than in your appearance; you were
then new to command, doubtful as to your own powers, and diffident with
those older than yourself. Now for two years you have thought and acted
for yourself, and have shown yourself capable of making a mark even
among men like the knights of St. John, both in valour and in fitness to
command. You saved St. Nicholas, you saved the life of the grand master;
and in the order of the day he issued on the morning we left, granting
you three months' leave for the recovery of your wounds, he took the
opportunity of recording, in the name of the council and himself, their
admiration for the services rendered by you during the siege, and his
own gratitude for saving his life when he lay helpless and surrounded by
the Moslems--a testimony of which any knight of Christendom might well
feel proud."

It was three hours before Caretto returned to the ship.

"My cousin is at home, and will be