A Knight of the White Cross
By G. A. Henty
This book is set in Rhodes in the 1480s, and depicts the knights of St John at the time of the first siege of that great city.
The main character Gervaise Tresham Was inducted into the order at a very young age and served many years in their service.
For two years He was a page of the Grand Master. And then he became (at 15 years old) one of the professed Knights of the Order. He served as an overseer of some of the slaves who were at work on the defenses; by the end of six months he had a great knowledge of Masonry which would come in to be very useful later.
He was next sent out on board a galley under the command of Sir Louis Ricord, as part of a cruising fleet of three galleys. They were going to cruise between the islands and the mainland. As they went along the herd reports of a dreadful corsair, Hassan Ali. So they kept out a sharp lookout for him.
One morning when Gervaise and his Dear friend Ralph Harcourt were sent to the hills to look and see if they could spot any ships of a suspicious character, for five minutes they looked without seeing anything that looked suspicious, but just as they were going to head down the ship, Gervaise saw smoke coming from an island about five miles away. They ran to the ship, and made for the island as fast as the slaves could row. There was a battle, and they captured four of the pirates, but the cost was dear, in all seven knights had fallen. So Ricord Sent Gervaise, Ralph, a English knight named Sir John Boswell, and ten rowers to their rendezvous some fifty miles away.
They were spotted by the corsairs, who had not made it to the ships when the battle started, and took a ship that was at the shoreline, and gave chase. The knights almost did not make it.
But due to the knowledge of Turkish that Sir John Boswell had acquired while a prisoner of the Egyptians they were able to escape, make it back to the rendezvous, and get the other ships to come to the help of Ricord.
For the next nine months Gervaise (seeing the advantage of knowing the language) took to learning Turkish, with one of the slaves (who was a nobleman in his own country) named Suleiman Ali.
And he discovered a plot by of the slaves, to escape in some of the galleys, Burn the rest, and Spike the guns at fort ST Nicolas.
And at one point he was Captured by the Moors, and used his knowledge of Turkish to escape.
Gervaise became a very distinguished Knight of the Order.
And during the Siege of Rhodes, he saved the fort of ST Nicolas by a action with Fire ships, and Saved the life of the Grand Master, when at a Breach in the walls, the Grand Master fell to the ground, Gervaise stood over him, until some other knights came to their aid.
This is defiantly a wonderful book to read.
If you like Henty, then you will love
A Knight of the White Cross.
Samuel Barton
December 23, 2009
