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Chapter 36 - Page 1 of 12

 

Say not my art is fraud--all live by seeming.
The beggar begs with it, and the gay courtier
Gains land and title, rank and rule, by seeming;
The clergy scorn it not, and the bold soldier
Will eke with it his service.--All admit it,
All practise it; and he who is content
With showing what he is, shall have small credit
In church, or camp, or state--So wags the world.

--Old Play

Albert Malvoisin, President, or, in the language of the Order, Preceptor
of the establishment of Templestowe, was brother to that Philip
Malvoisin who has been already occasionally mentioned in this history,
and was, like that baron, in close league with Brian de Bois-Guilbert.

Amongst dissolute and unprincipled men, of whom the Temple Order
included but too many, Albert of Templestowe might be distinguished; but
with this difference from the audacious Bois-Guilbert, that he knew how
to throw over his vices and his ambition the veil of hypocrisy, and to
assume in his exterior the fanaticism which he internally despised.
Had not the arrival of the Grand Master been so unexpectedly sudden,
he would have seen nothing at Templestowe which might have appeared to
argue any relaxation of discipline. And, even although surprised, and,
to a certain extent, detected, Albert Malvoisin listened with such
respect and apparent contrition to the rebuke of his Superior, and made
such haste to reform the particulars he censured,--succeeded, in fine,
so well in giving an air of ascetic devotion to a family which had been
lately devoted to license and pleasure, that Lucas Beaumanoir began to
entertain a higher opinion of the Preceptor's morals, than the first
appearance of the establishment had inclined him to adopt.

Chapter 36 - Page 1 of 12