THE FALL, 1789-1798
Attacks on the Order during the French Revolution—French estates confiscated—Poverty of the Order—Tsar Paul I.—French schemes—Napoleon appears off Malta—Condition of the island—Its capture—Dispersion of the Order
APPENDIX I.
APPENDIX II.
BOOKS CONSULTED
NOTE ON THE AUTHORITIES
KNIGHTS OF MALTA
CHAPTER I
SETTLEMENT AT MALTA 1523-1565.
On January 1, 1523, a fleet of fifty vessels put out from the harbour at Rhodes for an unknown destination in the West. On board were the shattered remnants of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, accompanied by 4,000 Rhodians, who preferred the Knights and destitution to security under the rule of the Sultan Solyman. The little fleet was in a sad and piteous condition. Many of those on board were wounded; all—Knights and Rhodians alike—were in a state of extreme poverty. For six months they had resisted the full might of the Ottoman Empire under its greatest Sultan, Solyman the Magnificent; Europe had looked on in amazed admiration, but had not ventured to move to its rescue. Now they were leaving the home their Order had possessed for 212 years, and were sailing out to beg from Christendom another station from which to attack the infidel once again.