gainst the enemy, which often led them to great personal exposure, and
to the performance of heroic deeds. The individual conflicts were
frequently characterized more by rashness than by good judgment and
bravery. In the period of which we write, the mode of warfare and of
military organization left much freer scope for individual gallantry and
originality of purpose, much freer play for personal prowess. Men fought
less like machines and more like heroes than it is possible for them to
do under our modern system of combinations and of implicit obedience to
orders. The hope of successful and gallant adventure spurred on the most
indifferent to do something which should lead to distinction. Emulation
is an instinctive quality in those who make a profession of arms, and
fighting is an appetite which grows by what it feeds upon. Emulation and
imitation have been called twins.

It was after almost incredible suffering and persistency of effort that
the Order of St. John was finally settled at Rhodes upon a firmer basis
than it had ever before enjoyed, and here it remained sovereign for over
two centuries, becoming so identified with the place as to be known
throughout Christendom as the Knights of Rhodes. They had little
opportunity for the exercise of those Christian virtues which they had
heretofore claimed for their fraternity, but their character as a
warlike brotherhood did not suffer by want of aggressiveness upon their
part.

This most beautiful island of Rhodes, which was about one third larger
than Malta, embowered with palms and citron groves, flourished
wonderfully under the sovereignty of the Knights, while the order itself
steadily increased in numbers, power, and wealth. The neighboring
islands of Telos, Syme, Nisyros, Cos, Leros, and Calymna, known on the
old charts as the Sporades, were conquered one after another and annexed
to the island of Rhodes, thus coming under the governorship of the Grand
Masters of the Knights. While establishing themselves in this island and
strengthening its half-ruined defenses, the most profitable employment
of the Knights was privateering, or, more correctly, active piracy. They
cruised against all Mohammedan and Greek vessels. True, their vows only
bound them to perpetual warfare against the Turks, but a very little
stretching of their consciences enabled them to see no wrong in
capturing the commercial property of the Greeks also. It must be
admitted that the latter people,