army at its height at some 40,000 men, of which but 15,000 returned
to Constantinople. It was a most inglorious ending to the reign of
Solyman the Magnificent.


[Footnote 1: A reminiscence of the Syrian days of the Order.]

[Footnote 2: The name given to the different estates of the
Hospitallers scattered throughout Europe: they were so called because
they were each in charge of a "commander," sometimes also named a
"preceptor," from his duty of receiving and training novices.]

[Footnote 3: Most historians make this event part of the attack of
August 18. But Prescott (_Philip II_., vol. ii., p. 428) points out
that Balbi, who is undoubtedly the best authority for the siege as he
was one of the garrison, places it on August 7.]




CHAPTER III


THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN

Before proceeding to trace the history of the last two centuries
of the Knights at Malta it will perhaps be advisable to examine the
organisation of an Order which was the greatest and most long-lived
of all the medieval Orders of Chivalry. The siege of 1565 was its last
great struggle with its mortal foe; after that there is but little