Sword-Lily: The Last days of the Knights of Malta 1798

Auguste-Émile Cillart de Kermainguy was born on August 26, 1809 at Chateau Locmaria in the French Province of Brittany. He hailed from an old and illustrious noble family with a strong military background. Had the Order and the knights still existed in his youth he may have well been sent to Malta to join that once highly-regarded and prestigious institution. He was a brilliant scholar and finished his studies in Paris where he became a lawyer. But he was more passionate about literature, history and poetry than he was about law. He travelled extensively in Europe and the Mediterranean and while he was in Malta he wrote three novels in which he describes what the island was like during the times of the Order of St. John. His novels were based not only on historic documents but also on interviews he had with some of the last remaining witnesses of those eventful times. According to the “Annuaire de la Noblesse de France” of 1854, De Kermainguy died at the young age of 45 after having contracted a disease from which he was unable recover due to his heartbreak from a love affair gone wrong.
This is De Kermainguy’s third and last novel about the Knights of Malta in which he tells the story of Sword-Lily and her love for a young French nobleman who came to Malta from Brittany to become a knight.