odes
when they evacuated the island.

The most celebrated relic of this Maltese cathedral was the reputed
right hand of St. John the Baptist, brought originally from Antioch to
Constantinople by the Emperor Justinian, who, in the intensity of his
veneration, built a church expressly for its preservation. After the
capture of Constantinople by the Turks, the Sultan Bajazet gave it to
the Grand Master D'Aubusson at Rhodes, whence it was brought to Malta by
L'Isle Adam. The hand was incased in a glove of wrought gold covered
with precious stones, among which was a large diamond of unusual value.
This gem, Bonaparte, as usual, stole and placed upon his own hand. "You
may keep the carrion," said the French general flippantly, as he handed
the relic to the Grand Master, minus the ring. It was a curious act of
destiny that the Corsican scourge should have carved his name upon this
rocky island of Malta,--this granite page of history.

When Hompesch treacherously and in the most cowardly manner surrendered
the Maltese group to the French, he carried the hand of St. John away
with him, and afterward presented it to Paul I., Emperor of Russia, when
he was chosen Grand Master of the order, under peculiar circumstances.
This singular relic is still preserved in the Winter Palace at St.
Petersburg.

The tapestries in the church of St. John are known to have cost
originally thirty thousand dollars, and were from the famous
manufactory of De Vas Freres of Brussels, for whose looms Rubens did not
disdain to work. On the way to Malta they were captured by a Moorish
corsair, and ransomed by the payment of their full value in gold. Thus
they cost the church just sixty thousand dollars.

Among other relics which are shown to the visitor is a thorn from the
crown worn by Christ, a fragment of the infant Jesus' cradle, one of the
stones which slew St. Stephen, the foot of Lazarus, some bones of St.
Thomas of Canterbury, and so on.

On either side of the nave of the church of St. John are dome-crowned
chapels, each having its special altar elaborately ornamented with
paintings of more or less merit, together with bronze and marble
statues. These chapels were devoted to the several divisions of the
Knights,--the different languages, comprising those of France, Provence,
Auvergne, Aragon, Castile, Italy, Germany, and Anglo-Bavaria, eight in
all. In the French chapel is a sarcophagus in memory of the Duke de
Beaujolais, brother of Louis Ph