Page 374 - A Knight of the White Cross

Gervaise was well received at Rome, and the Pope, after reading the grand
master's letter, and learning from him his reason for wishing to leave the

Order, without hesitation granted him absolution from his vows. A few
months later there was a grand wedding at the cathedral of Genoa, the doge

and all the nobles of the Republic being present.

Ralph Harcourt and nine other young knights had accompanied Gervaise

from Rhodes by the permission, and indeed at the suggestion, of the grand
master, who was anxious to show that Gervaise had his full approval and

countenance in leaving the Order. Caretto, who had been appointed grand
prior of Italy, had brought the knights from all the commanderies in the
northern republics to do honour to the occasion, and the whole, in their rich

armour and the mantles of the Order, made a distinguishing feature in the
scene.

The defeat of the Turks created such enthusiasm throughout Europe that
when the grand prior of England laid before the king letters he had received

from the grand master and Sir John Kendall, speaking in the highest terms
of the various great services Gervaise had rendered to the Order, Edward

granted his request that the act of attainder against Sir Thomas Tresham
and his descendants should be reversed and the estates restored to Gervaise.
The latter made, with his wife, occasional journeys to England, staying a

few months on his estates in Kent; and as soon as his second son became
old enough, he sent him to England to be educated, and settled the estate

upon him. He himself had but few pleasant memories of England; he had
spent indeed but a very short time there before he entered the house of the
Order in Clerkenwell, and that time had been marked by constant anxiety,

and concluded with the loss of his father. The great estates that were now
his in Italy demanded his full attention, and, as one of the most powerful

nobles of Genoa, he had come to take a prominent part in the affairs of the
Republic.

He was not called upon to fulfil his promise to aid in the defence of
Rhodes, for the death of Mahomet just at the time when he was preparing a

vast expedition against it, freed the Island for a long time from fear of an
invasion. From time to time they received visits from Ralph Harcourt, who,