84 THE TEMPLARS IX CYPRUS. [ACT II. CHAPLAIN (As'uU to NOFFO). Jesu Maria ! NOFFO (Aloud to the CHAPLAIN). Let him have his way ! Could you prevent him ? Wherefore should ho not ? You've promised him, 'tis true, the dignity Of Master, but ho likes it not : ho will To Molay, his forgiveness to implore, As guerdon for revealing all that you Have trusted to his honour. And ho'll succeed ; I'll wager Molay will at last entrust Some little Priorate to him. And, friend Chaplain, This courso is much tho wisest, for 'tis clear, If Molay lives, will never Heribcrt Be Master ! That is clearly understood, And plainly was evinced that time when he, After Gaudini's death, so craftily Snapped up the Mastership before his face !' PRIOR. Ha ! thank thee for reminding me of that ! Priest, I am silent, and I will forget All that thy villany has revealed to mo. This I may justly do, since he from me,— The worthier,—robbed tho linen-mantle fair, The prize so long desired, so long deserved ; And flung me, then—he, or his Chapter, 'tis All one to me,—into this mouldering cell, On the mere empty and exploded plea, That I had called a sacred legend lies,*— 1 The Grand-Master Gaudini, overwhelmed with sorrow and vexa-tion at the loss of the Holy Land, and the miserable situation of his Order, stripped of all its possessions on the Asiatic continent, and des-titute of bouses to dwell in, died at Limcsol after a short illness, and was succeeded by Brother James de Molay, of tbe family of tho lords of Longrio and Kaon, in Burgundy. Gaudini was appointed Grand-Master at Acre in 1291, after the death of William dc lieaujeu from the arrows and darts of the enemy j and soon afterwards escaped, with a few Templars, to Cyprus. The remainder of the surviving 300 Templars were buried in the fall of the tower of the Temple at Acre, which was undermined by tho Mamelukes.—Trans. * " Answer me not," said the Templar, " by urging the difference of