<DIV><P>Founded in 1080, the Knights Hospitaller of St. John and Malta was a militant order of monk-soldiers who alone outlasted the bloody centuries of the Crusades. Their last hundred years were spent as sovereigns of Malta, fighting Barbary pirates and policing the Mediterranean. Under their protection, Malta flourished, but the Knights themselves were softened by the years of relative stability and indolent living. When Napoleon invaded in 1798, the island fell easily and the Knights fled, powerless and depleted, to Russia. In riveting and colourful detail, <I>The Last of the Crusaders </I>tells the story of the decline of this once mighty order and of the island that was their final sanctuary.</P></DIV>