Page 100 - A Knight of the White Cross

"There are but few knights of the Order who speak the language," he said.
"As a rule, while young men are ready to devote any amount of time to

acquiring dexterity in all martial exercises, they will bestow no labour in
obtaining knowledge that may be fully as useful to them as skill in arms. In

our dealings with the Turks, one or other party has to employ an interpreter,
and it is often by no means certain that these men convey the full meaning
of the speeches they translate. Again, we have large numbers of Turkish

slaves, and it is highly to be desired that the knights should be able to give
their orders to these men in their own language. Lastly, a knight who has

been taken prisoner by the Turks -- and even the bravest might meet with
such a misfortune -- would find it an alleviation of his lot, and might be
able to plan and carry out his escape, did he speak Turkish well. I should

strongly counsel you to acquire a knowledge of the tongue."

Gervaise had intended to follow the advice of the grand prior, but the duties
of his office as page, and the time required for his military exercises and his
studies with the chaplain, had rendered it well nigh impossible, during the

first three years, to turn his attention to learning Turkish. As soon as his
pageship was at an end, and he found that his duties included supervision of

Turkish slaves, he felt the want of a knowledge of the language, and from
that time devoted an hour a day to its study, employing one of the servants
of the auberge, who was a man of rank and education at home, to instruct

him.

While he conscientiously spent this amount of time at the work, it was the
most disagreeable portion of this day's labour. The events, however, that
had taken place during the expedition had impressed him greatly with the

utility of a knowledge of Turkish, for had it not been for Sir John Boswell's
possessing some acquaintance with the language, it would have been

impossible to communicate with the rowers of their boat, or to have
arranged the plan by which they had escaped the pirates. He had then and
there determined that as soon as he returned to Rhodes he would take the

matter up in a very different spirit to that in which he before approached it.
He had on the way home spoken to Sir John, who had highly approved of

the determination.