Page 178 - A Knight of the White Cross

"Doubtless it could be managed in such cases, Gervaise, but it is a pity that
it should have to be managed. I can see no reason in the world why a

knight, after doing ten years of service here, should not be free to marry,
providing he takes a vow to render full service to the Order whenever

called upon to do so. Already the vow of poverty is everywhere broken.
Already, in defiance of their oaths, too many knights lead idle and dissolute
lives. Already, knights, when in their own countries, disregard the rule that

they shall draw sword in no cause save that of the Holy Sepulchre, and, like
other knights and nobles, take part in civil strife or foreign wars. All this is

a scandal, and it were better by far to do away with all oaths, save that of
obedience and willingness to war with the infidel, than to make vows that
all men know are constantly and shamelessly broken.

"I am fond of you, Gervaise. I am proud of you, as one who has brought

honour to our langue, and who, in time, will bring more honour. I am glad
that, so far as there can be between a young knight and one of middle age,
there is a friendship between us. But see what greater pleasure it would

give to my life were you my son, for whom I could lay by such funds as I
could well spare, instead of spending all my appointments on myself, and

having neither kith nor kin to give a sigh of regret when the news comes
that I have fallen in some engagement with the infidels. I often think of all
these things, and sometimes talk them over with comrades, and there are

few who do not hold, with me, that it would be far better that we should
become a purely military Order, like some of the military Orders in the

courts of the European sovereigns, than remain as we are, half monk, half
soldier -- a mixture that, so far as I can see, accords but badly with either
morality or public repute.

"However, I see no chance of such a change coming, and we must be

content to observe our vows as well as may be, so long as we are willing to
remain monks and try to obtain dispensation from our vows should we
desire to alter our mode of life. We ought either to have remained monks

pure and simple, spending our lives in deeds of charity, a life which suits
many men, and against which I should be the last to say anything, or else

soldiers pure and simple, as were the crusaders, who wrested the Holy
Sepulchre from the hands of the infidels. At present, Gervaise, your