years, joining the organization was the means of providing for a
younger brother in titled European families. The order became the resort
for libertines who had exhausted all home relations. It was not unusual
for men, however dissolute, provided they belonged to the higher ranks,
to become Knights of St. John as a final resort, after leading a godless
and criminal career.

An instance which occurred so late as 1783 is called to mind, when the
Knights, for a brief period, seemed to awaken to the old instincts and
professions of their order. It was tidings of the fearfully destructive
earthquake in Sicily, happening in that year, which so aroused the
fraternity. Manning their galleys, after they had filled them with
food, wine, and medicine, they sailed across the sea, and having landed
amid widespread desolation, they assumed the role of good Samaritans,
feeding the hungry, ministering to the sick, and smoothing the pillow of
the dying. Thus they once more revived the memory of those grand,
unselfish days at Jerusalem, when they were justly renowned and revered
as Hospitallers, living up to their vows of poverty, charity, and
chastity. This was, however, only the blazing up of dying embers, and
the order lapsed once more into luxury and decay.

The final disaster which befell the Knights of St. John, as an
organization, came through the medium of treachery, and that, too, of
the grossest description, in 1798, when Von Hompesch was the Grand
Master. This faithless man, like Bazaine at Metz, proved to be an arch
traitor to every trust that had been reposed in him, and won the
contempt of all Christendom.

Von Hompesch was a man entirely unfit for such an exigency as then
occurred. He was devoid of all firmness or decision of character, and
was, indeed, neither priest nor soldier except in name. It seems strange
that he should have been chosen to so responsible a situation by his
brotherhood, who must have known the man thoroughly. The application of
the classic saying is clear: "Whom the gods would destroy, they first
make mad." There was evidently considerable discontent under his
authority, and rebellious expressions were not wanting. At this
distance of time, and with our want of light upon the situation, no
satisfactory motive can be adduced for Von Hompesch's treachery and
general listlessness. The principal traitors who are known to have been
most active in this conspiracy, for conspiracy it was, were the Knights