“I am delighted to see you again, Gervaise.  I was feeling very sore at the moment, and I know the others felt the same, at being obliged to sheer off without making a capture; but the grand master’s orders were strict.  We noted your craft pursued by the Turks, and I asked leave to take out a galley to cut her off.  He said, ’Take one, Sir John, but do not adventure an attack against the Turk unless she is likely to fall an easy prize to you.  Her capture would be of little benefit to us, and would be dearly purchased at the cost of a knight’s life.  Therefore, as soon as we engaged her, and I found that she was full of troops and could not be captured without heavy loss, and that two of her consorts might arrive before we accomplished it, it was plainly my duty to abandon the attempt, although, you may guess, it went sorely against the grain to give the order, especially as I knew that a host would be looking on from St. Stephen’s Hill.  However, your rescue more than makes up for our failure; and thankful indeed am I that I made the suggestion that we should put out to save that little craft, though I thought it contained but a few fishermen or some coasting sailors, who had, in ignorance that the Turks were at hand, tried to enter Rhodes.  One of those looking on with me did, indeed, suggest that she might have on board a knight or two coming to join us, but I did not give the matter a second thought.”

“And how go things, Sir John?  And how are old friends?”

“Ralph Harcourt and, I think, all your comrades in the Santa Barbara, except the three who fell by your side when you were captured, are well, and at present on the Island, as, for the last two years, none have been allowed to depart.  As to other matters, they go not so well as one could wish.  The commanderies have not responded to our call for aid as they should have done.  For this, however, they are not altogether to blame, for we have been so often threatened with attack, and have so frequently applied for aid in money or men, that they must have begun to doubt whether the danger was really imminent.  In other respects we are well prepared.  We have obtained large stores of provisions from Egypt, and shall have no ground for uneasiness on that score.  The defences have been greatly strengthened, and no one fears that we shall not be able to beat off an attack.  We have destroyed the principal buildings outside the walls, though it would have been better could we have gone much further in this direction.  And now let us have your adventures and escape.”

“’Tis a long story, Sir John, and I must pray you to let me defer it for a time.  In the first place, I have two or three wounds that I shall be glad to have bandaged.”

“Why did you not say so at once?” Sir John exclaimed.  “In those dark clothes, soaked with water as they are, I did not see the bloodstains; but I ought to have looked for them, for surely no one could have gone through that fight —­ altogether unprotected with armour too —­ without being wounded.  Come below, and we will attend to them.”