To man the walls properly would need a force five times as numerous as that which is now here.

I recognise the valour of your knights; they have accomplished wonders.

But even they cannot accomplish impossibilities.

For a time they could hold the walls; but as their number became reduced by the fire of the Turkish cannon and the battles at the breaches, they would at last be too weak any longer to repel the onslaughts of foes with an almost unlimited supply of soldiers." "That is true enough," Gervaise admitted; "and to my mind it is shocking that four-fifths at least of the Order, pledged to oppose the infidels, should be occupied with the inglorious work of looking after the manors and estates of the society throughout Europe, while one-fifth, at most, are here performing the duties to which all are sworn.

Of the revenues of the estates themselves, a mere fraction finds its way hither.