er greeting
him, demanded the latest news from England, and in return gave him
particulars of the state of things at Rhodes.

At last they arrived at the house of the English langue. The Order
was divided into langues or nationalities. Of these there were
eight--Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Germany, England, Aragon, and
Castile and Portugal. The French element was by far the strongest. The
Order had been founded in that country, and as it possessed no less than
three langues, and held the greater part of the high official positions
in the Order, it was only kept in check by the other langues acting
together to demand their fair share of dignities. The grand master's
authority was considerable, but it was checked by the council, which
was composed of the bailiffs and knights of the highest order, known
as Grand Crosses. Each langue had its bailiff elected by itself: these
resided constantly at Rhodes. Each of these bailiffs held a high office;
thus the Bailiff of Provence was always the grand commander of the
Order. He controlled the expenditure, superintended the stores, and
was governor of the arsenal. The Bailiff of Auvergne was the
commander-in-chief of all the forces, army and navy. The Bailiff of
France was the grand hospitaller, with the supreme direction of the
hospitals and infirmaries of the Order, a hospital in those days
signifying a guest house. The Bailiff of Italy was the grand admiral,
and the Bailiff of England was chief of the light cavalry. Thus the
difficulties and jealousies that would have arisen at every vacancy were
avoided.

In the early days of the Order, when Jerusalem was in the hands of the
Christians, the care of the hospitals was its chief and most important
function. Innumerable pilgrims visited Jerusalem, and these were
entertained at the immense guest house of the Order. But with the loss
of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Christians from Palestine, that
function had become of very secondary importance although there was
still a guest house and infirmary at Rhodes, where strangers and the
sick were carefully attended by the knights. No longer did these ride
out to battle on their war horses. It was on the sea that the foe was
to be met, and the knights were now sailors rather than soldiers. They
dwelt at the houses of their respective langues; here they ate at a
common table, which was supplied by the bailiff, who drew rations for
each knight, and received, in addition, a year