aid before the king letters he had
received from the grand master and Sir John Kendall, speaking in the
highest terms of the various great services Gervaise had rendered to the
Order, Edward granted his request that the act of attainder against Sir
Thomas Tresham and his descendants should be reversed and the estates
restored to Gervaise. The latter made, with his wife, occasional
journeys to England, staying a few months on his estates in Kent; and as
soon as his second son became old enough, he sent him to England to
be educated, and settled the estate upon him. He himself had but few
pleasant memories of England; he had spent indeed but a very short time
there before he entered the house of the Order in Clerkenwell, and that
time had been marked by constant anxiety, and concluded with the loss
of his father. The great estates that were now his in Italy demanded his
full attention, and, as one of the most powerful nobles of Genoa, he had
come to take a prominent part in the affairs of the Republic.

He was not called upon to fulfil his promise to aid in the defence of
Rhodes, for the death of Mahomet just at the time when he was preparing
a vast expedition against it, freed the Island for a long time from
fear of an invasion. From time to time they received visits from Ralph
Harcourt, who, after five years longer service at Rhodes, received a
commandery in England. He held it a few years only, and then returned to
the Island, where he obtained a high official appointment.

In 1489 Sir John Boswell became bailiff of the English langue, and Sir
Fabricius Caretto was in 1513 elected grand master of the Order, and
held the office eight years, dying in 1521.

When, in 1522, forty-two years after the first siege, Rhodes was again
beleaguered, Gervaise, who had, on the death of the countess, become
Count of Forli, raised a large body of men-at-arms, and sent them, under
the command of his eldest son, to take part in the defence. His third
son had, at the age of sixteen, entered the Order, and rose to high rank
in it.

The defence, though even more obstinate and desperate than the first,
was attended with less success, for after inflicting enormous losses
upon the great army, commanded by the Sultan Solyman himself, the town
was forced to yield; for although the Grand Master L'Isle Adam, and
most of his knights, would have preferred to bury themselves beneath
the ruins rather than yield, they were deterred from doing so, b