A KNIGHT OF THE WHITE CROSS
By G.A. Henty
CONTENTS
PREFACE.
CHAPTER I. THE KING MAKER
CHAPTER II. THE BATTLE OF TEWKESBURY
CHAPTER III. THE GRAND MASTER'S PAGE
CHAPTER IV. A PROFESSED KNIGHT
CHAPTER V. SCOURGES OF THE SEA
CHAPTER VI. KNIGHTED
CHAPTER VII. A FIRST COMMAND
CHAPTER VIII. AN EVENING AT RHODES
CHAPTER IX. WITH THE GALLEY SLAVES
CHAPTER X. A PLOT DISCOVERED
CHAPTER XI. IN COMMAND OF A GALLEY
CHAPTER XII. THE BOY GALLEY
CHAPTER XIII. THE FIRST PRIZES
CHAPTER XIV. THE CORSAIR FLEET
CHAPTER XV. A SPLENDID EXPLOIT
CHAPTER XVI. FESTIVITIES
CHAPTER XVII. CAPTURED
CHAPTER XVIII. A KIND MASTER
CHAPTER XIX. ESCAPE
CHAPTER XX. BELEAGUERED
CHAPTER XXI. THE FORT OF ST. NICHOLAS
CHAPTER XXII. THE STRUGGLE AT THE BREACH
CHAPTER XXIII. THE REWARD OF VALOUR
PREFACE.
MY DEAR LADS,
The order of the Knights of St. John, which for some centuries played a very important part in the great struggle between Christianity and Mahomedanism, was, at its origin, a semi-religious body, its members being, like other monks, bound by vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty, and pledged to minister to the wants of the pilgrims who flocked to the Holy Places, to receive them at their great Hospital—or guest house—at Jerusalem, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and to defend them on their passage to and from the sea, against attack by Moslems. In a comparatively short time the constitution of the order was changed, and the Knights Hospitallers became, like the Templars, a great military Order pledged to defend the Holy Sepulchre, and to war everywhere against the Moslems. The Hospitallers bore a leading share in the struggle which terminated in the triumph of the Moslems, and the capture by them of Jerusalem. The Knights of St. John then established themselves at Acre, but after a valiant defence of that fortress, removed to Crete, and shortly a