treat of briefly in this place, as the lives which they led and the deeds
which they performed were inextricably entangled with those of the
corsairs. These men were the members of that association first known as the
Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, later as the Knights of Malta. Between
them and the corsairs it was war to the death; and not only with these
robbers, but also with any ship which sailed beneath the insignia of the
Crescent.

In 1291 the Soldan of Egypt chased the Knights Hospitallers, as they were
also known, from the soil of the Holy Land; Philip IV. of France welcomed
them in the island of Cyprus, and gave them the town of Limasol as an
asylum. This for the time the knights were bound to accept, but they were
impatient of charity, resentful of tutelage, proud and independent.
Considering their own order as the greatest and most stable bulwark of the
Christian faith, they bowed before neither King nor Kaiser; and the only
boon they asked of great potentates, when allied temporarily with them in
their eternal warfare, was that on all occasions theirs should be the post
of the greatest danger.

This, indeed, they did not ask as a favour, but claimed as a right. It is
easily understood that such desperate warriors, who fought only to conquer
or die, were allies sought for eagerly by all professing the same faith.

Fulke de Villaret, Grand Master of the order in 1310, seized upon Rhodes,
which, though nominally belonging to Greece, was at this time a refuge for
bad characters of all nationalities. This island was in the most
advantageous position, as it commanded the sea-route from Constantinople to
Egypt and the ports of Asia Minor, and was also in close proximity to the
coast of Caramania, from whence the order could draw the necessary timber
for the building of their galleys and incidentally their motive power--in