In spite, however, of the fortifications having been hastily
constructed, his troops were defeated with great loss, and he was obliged
to raise the siege. In this manner did the indomitable champions of
Christendom begin that long and bloodthirsty war between the Cross and the
Crescent in the Mediterranean which was to endure for nearly another five
centuries.
[Illustration: GOZON DE DIEU-DONNE SLAYING THE GREAT SERPENT OF RHODES.]
In the long, chequered, and glorious history of the Knights there are many
strange and semi-miraculous deeds recounted of them in the wars and
adventures in which they took so prominent a part; the following, which is
gravely set out by the historians of the time, may be left to the judgment
of the reader. In 1324 Fulke de Villaret was succeeded in the Grand
Mastership by Helion de Villeneuve, a knight of exemplary piety and a
strict disciplinarian. Under his rule the Order regained those habits of
severe simplicity from which they had been allowed to lapse by his
predecessor. In 1329 Rhodes was greatly agitated by the fact that a
crocodile or serpent--as it is indifferently described--had taken up its
abode in the marshes at the foot of Mount St. Etienne, some two miles from
the town. This ferocious creature devoured sheep and cattle; also several
of the inhabitants had lost their lives by approaching the neighbourhood in
which it dwelt. Several attacks were made upon it, but, as there were no
firearms, all the missiles projected against it rebounded harmlessly from
the scales with which it was covered.
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