Page 242 - A Knight of the White Cross

At the palace were assembled all the municipal authorities, and the
congratulations given on board were here repeated. After this there was a

great banquet, at which Gervaise was placed on the right hand of the doge,
who, at the conclusion of the feast, called upon the assembled guests to

drink to the health of the knights of St. John, who had saved the commerce
and seacoast of Italy from the greatest danger that had menaced them since
the days when the Northern rovers had desolated the shores of the

Mediterranean. The toast was drunk with enthusiasm, and Gervaise then
replied with a few words of thanks for the honour done to himself and his

comrades.

The party then left the banqueting hall for the great reception rooms, where

the wives and daughters of all the nobles and principal citizens of Genoa
were assembled. Most of the young knights, belonging as they did to noble

families, and accustomed from childhood to courtly ceremonies and
festivities, were quite at home here. Caretto, his two companions, and their
six Italian comrades, speedily introduced them, and each was soon

surrounded by a group of ladies, anxious to hear from his lips the details of
the exploits of the galley.

"But how is it that you are all so young, Sir Ralph?" one of the ladies, to
whom Harcourt had been introduced as the second in command, asked him,

when he had finished his account of the capture of the galleys. "We heard
from those who met you on landing, that all your comrades were young, but

we were filled with surprise when you entered the room, for many of them
are but lads."

"You may say that all of us are but lads, Countess. I am the oldest of the
party, and am but little over twenty-two, but few of the others are over

nineteen; they are all professed knights of the Order, who, as you doubtless
know, come out to Rhodes when only sixteen. Some, of course, do not join
until later, but I think that all here entered at the earliest age permitted, and

almost all had served in two or three voyages in the galleys before they
were appointed to the Santa Barbara. The reason why so young a crew was

chosen was that our commander was also young. He had done such
exceptional service to the Order that he was appointed to the command of a