“If that is your opinion, Boswell, I will myself undertake it, and will do it at once; it were better done here than at a conclave of the Order —­ now, when they are fresh from the battle.  Let the knights be summoned from the other galleys at once.”

In a few minutes the whole of the knights were assembled on the poop of the galley.

“Friends, and brother knights,” D’Aubusson said.  “First, in the name of the Order, I have to thank you all most heartily for the brave deeds that you have performed, and for the fresh honour you have won for it.  Every man has, as I learn from the three commanders, borne himself as a true and valiant knight, ready to give his life in the cause of the Order and of humanity.  Two names have been specially brought before me by commander Ricord, and by the good knight Sir John Boswell; they are those of two young companions who, though knights of our Order, have not yet received secular knighthood, and this, in the opinion of these two knights, they have right worthily won.  Sir Ralph Harcourt and Sir Gervaise Tresham, step forward.”

The two young knights, colouring with pleasure at this unexpected honour, removed their helmets, and stood with bowed heads before the grand prior.  D’Aubusson went on, turning to the knights around him, “I am about, comrades, to undertake the office of knighting them.  Sir Louis Ricord and Sir John Boswell stand as their sponsors.  But before I proceed I would ask you all whether you, too, approve, and hold that Sir Ralph Harcourt and Sir Gervaise Tresham have proved themselves worthy of the honour of secular knighthood at my hands?”

There was a general reply in the affirmative, the answer of the survivors of Ricord’s crew being specially emphatic.  The grand prior drew his sword, and the two young knights knelt before him, their sponsors standing beside them.

“Sir Ralph Harcourt, you have now been four years a knight of this Order, but hitherto you have had no opportunity of drawing sword against the infidels.  Now that the chance has come, you have proved yourself a true and valiant brother of the Order, and well worthy of the secular accolade.  It is in that capacity that I now knight you.  It is not the grand prior of Auvergne, but Sir Peter D’Aubusson, of the grand cross of St. Louis, who now bestows upon you the honour of secular knighthood.”  He touched him lightly with the sword.  He then turned to Gervaise.

“You, Sir Gervaise Tresham, are young indeed to receive the honour of secular knighthood; but valour is of no age, and in the opinion of your commanders, and in that of your comrades, you have proved yourself worthy of the honour.  You have shown too, that, as Sir John Boswell has related to me, you are not only brave in action, but able, in the moment of danger, to plan and to execute.  You were, he tells me, the means of saving his life and that of your comrade, and, by thus enabling him to bear to