The brotherhood has been headed by the bravest cavaliers of France, by men who, jealous of the dignities of Knighthood, would admit no corruption, no base copies of the orders of chivalry, and who thought that the shield of their nobility was enriched by the impress of the Templars' red cross. Bertrand du Guesclin was the Grand Master from 1357 till his death in 1380, and he was the only French commander who prevailed over the chivalry of our Edward III. From 1478 to 1497, we may mark Robert Lenoncourt, a cavalier of one of the most ancient and valiant families of Lorraine. Phillippe Chabot, a renowned captain in the reign of Francis I., wielded the staff of power from 1516 to 1543. The illustrious family of Montmorency appear as Knights Templars, and Henry, the first Duke, was the chief of the Order from the year 1574 to 1614. At the close of the seventeenth century, the Grand Master was James Henry de Duras, a marshal of France, the nephew of Turenne, and one of the most skilful soldiers of Louis XIV. The Grand Masters from 1724 to 1776 were three princes of the royal Bourbon family. The names and years of power of these royal personages who acknowledged the dignity of the Order of the Temple, were Louis Augustus Bourbon, Duke of Maine, 1724-1737,--Louis Henry Bourbon Conde, 1737-1741,--and Louis Francis Bourbon Conty, 1741-1746. The successor of these princes in the Grand Mastership of the Temple was Louis Hercules Timoleon, Duke de Cosse Brissac, the descendant of an ancient family long celebrated in French history for its loyalty and gallant bearing. He accepted the office in 1776, and sustained it till he died in the cause of royalty at the beginning of the French Revolution. The Order has now at its head Sir William Sidney Smith, of chivalric renown, who became Regent upon the death of the late Grand Master, Bernard Raymond Fabré Palaprat. The high and heroic character of Sir Sidney Smith,[28]--whose deeds of arms at St. Jean d'Acre, rivalling those of the Royal Crusader, Richard I, obtained for him by Eastern Nations the appellation of the modern "Cœur de Lion,"--specially pointed him out as the most worthy of Christian Knights to fill this eminent station. He who with such noble philanthropy founded and presided over the Society of Knights Liberators of the White Slaves in Africa, cannot but shed additional lustre on the Soldiery of the Temple, whose professed object originally was, and yet is, the protection of defenceless pilgrims, and the rescuing of Christians from Infidel bondage. Under such a Chief the Order must prosper, and there are now Colleges or Establishments in England and in many of the principal Cities of Europe. [Illustration: BERTRAND DU GUESCLIN, _From a Wood-cut in a rare gothic folio, printed at Lyons, 1490, preserved in the Bibliothèque Royale, Paris; and called the "Chronique de Bertrand du Guesclin."_] [Illustration: ADMIRAL SIR SIDNEY SMITH. _Engraved by W. Greatbatch from a picture by F. Opie R.A._]