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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Modern Telemachus
+by Charlotte M. Yonge
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+Title: A Modern Telemachus
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+Author: Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+Release Date: July, 2003  [Etext #4271]
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Modern Telemachus
+by Charlotte M. Yonge
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+
+
+
+A MODERN TELEMACHUS
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+
+The idea of this tale was taken from The Mariners' Chronicle, compiled
+by a person named Scott early in the last century--a curious book of
+narratives of maritime adventures, with exceedingly quaint
+illustrations.  Nothing has ever shown me more plainly that truth is
+stranger than fiction, for all that is most improbable here is the
+actual fact.
+
+The Comte de Bourke was really an Irish Jacobite, naturalised in
+France, and married to the daughter of the Marquis de Varennes, as well
+as in high favour with the Marshal Duke of Berwick.
+
+In 1719, just when the ambition of Elizabeth Farnese, the second wife
+of Philip V. of Spain, had involved that country in a war with England,
+France, and Austria, the Count was transferred from the Spanish Embassy
+to that of Sweden, and sent for his wife and two elder children to join
+him at a Spanish port.
+
+This arrangement was so strange that I can only account for it by
+supposing that as this was the date of a feeble Spanish attempt on
+behalf of the Jacobites in Scotland, Comte de Bourke may not have
+ventured by the direct route.  Or it may not have been etiquette for
+him to re-enter France when appointed ambassador.  At any rate, the
+poor Countess did take this route to the South, and I am inclined to
+think the narrative must be correct, as all the side-lights I have been
+able to gain perfectly agree with it, often in an unexpected manner.
+
+The suite and the baggage were just as related in the story--the only
+liberty I have taken being the bestowal of names.  'M. Arture' was
+really of the party, but I have made him Scotch instead of Irish, and I
+have no knowledge that the lackey was not French.  The imbecility of
+the Abbe is merely a deduction from his helplessness, but of course
+this may have been caused by illness.
+
+The meeting with M. de Varennes at Avignon, Berwick's offer of an
+escort, and the Countess's dread of the Pyrenees, are all facts, as
+well as her embarkation in the Genoese tartane bound for Barcelona, and
+its capture by the Algerine corsair commanded by a Dutch renegade, who
+treated her well, and to whom she gave her watch.
+
+Algerine history confirms what is said of his treatment.  Louis XIV.
+had bombarded the pirate city, and compelled the Dey to receive a
+consul and to liberate French prisoners and French property; but the
+lady having been taken in an Italian ship, the Dutchman was afraid to
+set her ashore without first taking her to Algiers, lest he should fall
+under suspicion.  He would not venture on taking so many women on board
+his own vessel, being evidently afraid of his crew of more than two
+hundred Turks and Moors, but sent seven men on board the prize and took
+it in tow.
+
+Curiously enough, history mentions the very tempest which drove the
+tartane apart from her captor, for it also shattered the French
+transports and interfered with Berwick's Spanish campaign.
+
+The circumstances of the wreck have been closely followed.  'M. Arture'
+actually saved Mademoiselle de Bourke, and placed her in the arms of
+the maitre d'hotel, who had reached a rock, together with the Abbe, the
+lackey, and one out of the four maids.  The other three were all in the
+cabin with their mistress and her son, and shared their fate.
+
+The real 'Arture' tried to swim to the shore, but never was seen again,
+so that his adventures with the little boy are wholly imaginary.  But
+the little girl's conduct is perfectly true.  When in the steward's
+arms she declared that the savages might take her life, but never
+should make her deny her faith.
+
+The account of these captors was a great difficulty, till in the old
+Universal History I found a description of Algeria which tallied
+wonderfully with the narrative.  It was taken from a survey of the
+coast made a few years later by English officials.
+
+The tribe inhabiting Mounts Araz and Couco, and bordering on Djigheli
+Bay, were really wild Arabs, claiming high descent, but very loose
+Mohammedans, and savage in their habits.  Their name of Cabeleyzes is
+said--with what truth I know not--to mean 'revolted,' and they held
+themselves independent of the Dey.  They were in the habit of murdering
+or enslaving all shipwrecked travellers, except subjects of Algiers,
+whom they released with nothing but their lives.
+
+All this perfectly explains the sufferings of Mademoiselle de Bourke.
+The history of the plundering, the threats, the savage treatment of the
+corpses, the wild dogs, the councils of the tribe, the separation of
+the captives, and the child's heroism, is all literally true--the
+expedient of Victorine's defence alone being an invention.  It is also
+true that the little girl and the maitre d'hotel wrote four letters,
+and sent them by different chances to Algiers, but only the last ever
+arrived, and it created a great sensation.
+
+M. Dessault is a real personage, and the kindness of the Dey and of the
+Moors was exactly as related, also the expedient of sending the
+Marabout of Bugia to negotiate.
+
+Mr. Thomas Thompson was really the English Consul at the time, but his
+share in the matter is imaginary, as it depends on Arthur's adventures.
+
+The account of the Marabout system comes from the Universal History;
+but the arrival, the negotiations, and the desire of the sheyk to
+detain the young French lady for a wife to his son, are from the
+narrative.  He really did claim to be an equal match for her, were she
+daughter of the King of France, since he was King of the Mountains.
+
+The welcome at Algiers and the Te Deum in the Consul's chapel also are
+related in the book that serves me for authority.  It adds that
+Mademoiselle de Bourke finally married a Marquis de B--, and lived much
+respected in Provence, dying shortly before the Revolution.
+
+I will only mention further that a rescued Abyssinian slave named
+Fareek (happily not tongueless) was well known to me many years ago in
+the household of the late Warden Barter of Winchester College.
+
+Since writing the above I have by the kindness of friends been enabled
+to discover Mr. Scott's authority, namely, a book entitled Voyage pour
+la Redemption des captifs aux Royaumes d'Alger et de Tunis, fait en
+1720 par les P.P. Francois Comelin, Philemon de la Motte, et Joseph
+Bernard, de l'Ordre de la Sainte Trinite, dit Mathurine.  This Order
+was established by Jean Matha for the ransom and rescue of prisoners in
+the hands of the Moors.  A translation of the adventures of the
+Comtesse de Bourke and her daughter was published in the Catholic
+World, New York, July 1881.  It exactly agrees with the narration in
+The Mariners' Chronicle except that, in the true spirit of the
+eighteenth century, Mr. Scott thought fit to suppress that these
+ecclesiastics were at Algiers at the time of the arrival of
+Mademoiselle de Bourke's letter, that they interested themselves
+actively on her behalf, and that they wrote the narrative from the lips
+of the maitre d'hotel (who indeed may clearly be traced throughout).
+It seems also that the gold cups were chalices, and that a complete set
+of altar equipments fell a prey to the Cabeleyzes, whose name the good
+fathers endeavour to connect with Cabale--with about as much reason as
+if we endeavoured to derive that word from the ministry of Charles II.
+
+Had I known in time of the assistance of these benevolent brethren I
+would certainly have introduced them with all due honour, but, like the
+Abbe Vertot, I have to say, Mon histoire est ecrite, and what is worse-
+-printed.  Moreover, they do not seem to have gone on the mission with
+the Marabout from Bugia, so that their presence really only accounts
+for the Te Deum with which the redeemed captives were welcomed.
+
+It does not seem quite certain whether M. Dessault was Consul or Envoy;
+I incline to think the latter.  The translation in the Catholic World
+speaks of Sir Arthur, but Mr. Scott's 'M. Arture' is much more
+vraisemblable.  He probably had either a surname to be concealed or
+else unpronounceable to French lips.  Scott must have had some further
+information of the after history of Mademoiselle de Bourke since he
+mentions her marriage, which could hardly have taken place when Pere
+Comelin's book was published in 1720.
+
+C. M. YONGE.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--COMPANIONS OF THE VOYAGE
+
+
+
+   'Make mention thereto
+Touching my much loved father's safe return,
+If of his whereabouts I may best hear.'
+Odyssey (MUSGRAVE).
+
+'Oh! brother, I wish they had named you Telemaque, and then it would
+have been all right!'
+
+'Why so, sister?  Why should I be called by so ugly a name?  I like
+Ulysses much better; and it is also the name of my papa.'
+
+'That is the very thing.  His name is Ulysses, and we are going to seek
+for him.'
+
+'Oh!  I hope that cruel old Mentor is not coming to tumble us down over
+a great rook, like Telemaque in the picture.'
+
+'You mean Pere le Brun?'
+
+'Yes; you know he always says he is our Mentor.  And I wish he would
+change into a goddess with a helmet and a shield, with an ugly face,
+and go off in a cloud.  Do you think he will, Estelle?'
+
+'Do not be so silly, Ulick; there are no goddesses now.'
+
+'I heard M. de la Mede tell that pretty lady with the diamond butterfly
+that she was his goddess; so there are!'
+
+'You do not understand, brother.  That was only flattery and
+compliment.  Goddesses were only in the Greek mythology, and were all
+over long ago!'
+
+'But are we really going to see our papa?'
+
+'Oh yes, mamma told me so.  He is made Ambassador to Sweden, you know.'
+
+'Is that greater than Envoy to Spain?'
+
+'Very, very much greater.  They call mamma Madame l'Ambassadrice; and
+she is having three complete new dresses made.  See, there are la bonne
+and Laurent talking.  It is English, and if we go near with our cups
+and balls we shall hear all about it.  Laurent always knows, because my
+uncle tells him.'
+
+'You must call him La Juenesse now he is made mamma's lackey.  Is he
+not beautiful in his new livery?'
+
+'Be still now, brother; I want to hear what they are saying.'
+
+This may sound somewhat sly, but French children, before Rousseau had
+made them the fashion, were kept in the background, and were reduced to
+picking up intelligence as best they could without any sense of its
+being dishonourable to do so; and, indeed, it was more neglect than
+desire of concealment that left their uninformed.
+
+This was in 1719, four years after the accession of Louis XV., a puny
+infant, to the French throne, and in the midst of the Regency of the
+Duke of Orleans.  The scene was a broad walk in the Tuileries gardens,
+beneath a closely-clipped wall of greenery, along which were disposed
+alternately busts upon pedestals, and stone vases of flowers, while
+beyond lay formal beds of flowers, the gravel walks between radiating
+from a fountain, at present quiescent, for it was only ten o'clock in
+the forenoon, and the gardens were chiefly frequented at that hour by
+children and their attendants, who, like Estelle and Ulysse de Bourke,
+were taking an early walk on their way home from mass.
+
+They were a miniature lady and gentleman of the period in costume, with
+the single exception that, in consideration of their being only nine
+and seven years old, their hair was free from powder.  Estelle's light,
+almost flaxen locks were brushed back from her forehead, and tied
+behind with a rose-coloured ribbon, but uncovered, except by a tiny
+lace cap on the crown of her head; Ulick's darker hair was carefully
+arranged in great curls on his back and shoulders, as like a full-
+bottomed wig as nature would permit, and over it he wore a little
+cocked hat edged with gold lace.  He had a rich laced cravat, a double-
+breasted waistcoat of pale blue satin, and breeches to match, a brown
+velvet coat with blue embroidery on the pockets, collar, and skirts,
+silk stockings to match, as well as the knot of the tiny scabbard of
+the semblance of a sword at his side, shoes with silver buckles, and
+altogether he might have been a full-grown Comte or Vicomte seen
+through a diminishing glass.  His sister was in a full-hooped dress,
+with tight long waist, and sleeves reaching to her elbows, the under
+skirt a pale pink, the upper a deeper rose colour; but stiff as was the
+attire, she had managed to give it a slight general air of
+disarrangement, to get her cap a little on one side, a stray curl loose
+on her forehead, to tear a bit of the dangling lace on her arms, and to
+splash her robe with a puddle.  He was in air, feature, and complexion
+a perfect little dark Frenchman.  The contour of her face, still more
+its rosy glow, were more in accordance with her surname, and so
+especially were the large deep blue eyes with the long dark lashes and
+pencilled brows.  And there was a lively restless air about her full of
+intelligence, as she manoeuvred her brother towards a stone seat,
+guarded by a couple of cupids reining in sleepy-looking lions in stone,
+where, under the shade of a lime-tree, her little petticoated brother
+of two years old was asleep, cradled in the lap of a large, portly,
+handsome woman, in a dark dress, a white cap and apron, and dark
+crimson cloak, loosely put back, as it was an August day.  Native
+costumes were then, as now, always worn by French nurses; but this was
+not the garb of any province of the kingdom, and was as Irish as the
+brogue in which she was conversing with the tall fine young man who
+stood at ease beside her.  He was in a magnificent green and gold
+livery suit, his hair powdered, and fastened in a queue, the whiteness
+contrasting with the dark brows, and the eyes and complexion of that
+fine Irish type that it is the fashion to call Milesian.  He looked
+proud of his dress, which was viewed in those days as eminently
+becoming, and did in fact display his well-made figure and limbs to
+great advantage; but he looked anxiously about, and his first inquiry
+on coming on the scene in attendance upon the little boy had been -
+
+'The top of the morning to ye, mother!  And where is Victorine?'
+
+'Arrah, and what would ye want with Victorine?' demanded the bonne.
+'Is not the old mother enough for one while, to feast her eyes on her
+an' Lanty Callaghan, now he has shed the marmiton's slough, and come
+out in old Ireland's colours, like a butterfly from a palmer?  La
+Jeunesse, instead of Laurent here, and Laurent there.'
+
+La Pierre and La Jeunesse were the stereotyped names of all pairs of
+lackeys in French noble houses, and the title was a mark of promotion;
+but Lanty winced and said, 'Have done with that, mother.  You know that
+never the pot nor the kettle has blacked my fingers since Master Phelim
+went to the good fathers' school with me to carry his books and insinse
+him with the larning.  'Tis all one, as his own body-servant that I
+have been, as was fitting for his own foster-brother, till now, when
+not one of the servants, barring myself and Maitre Hebert, the steward,
+will follow Madame la Comtesse beyond the four walls of Paris.  "Will
+you desert us too, Laurent?" says the lady.  "And is it me you mane,
+Madame," says I, "Sorrah a Callaghan ever deserted a Burke!"  "Then,"
+says she, "if you will go with us to Sweden, you shall have two
+lackey's suits, and a couple of louis d'or to cross your pocket with by
+the year, forbye the fee and bounty of all the visitors to M. le
+Comte."  "Is it M. l'Abbe goes with Madame?" says I.  "And why not,"
+says she.  "Then," says I, "'tis myself that is mightily obliged to
+your ladyship, and am ready to put on her colours and do all in reason
+in her service, so as I am free to attend to Master Phelim, that is M.
+l'Abbe, whenever he needs me, that am in duty bound as his own foster-
+brother."  "Ah, Laurent," says she, "'tis you that are the faithful
+domestic.  We shall all stand in need of such good offices as we can do
+to one another, for we shall have a long and troublesome, if not
+dangerous journey, both before and after we have met M. le Comte."'
+
+Estelle here nodded her head with a certain satisfaction, while the
+nurse replied -
+
+'And what other answer could the son of your father make--Heavens be
+his bed--that was shot through the head by the masther's side in the
+weary wars in Spain? and whom could ye be bound to serve barring Master
+Phelim, that's lain in the same cradle with yees--'
+
+'Is not Victorine here, mother?' still restlessly demanded Lanty.
+
+'Never you heed Victorine,' replied she.  'Sure she may have a little
+arrand of her own, and ye might have a word for the old mother that
+never parted with you before.'
+
+'You not going, mother!' he exclaimed.
+
+''Tis my heart that will go with you and Masther Phelim, my jewel; but
+Madame la Comtesse will have it that this weeny little darlint'--
+caressing the child in her lap--'could never bear the cold of that bare
+and dissolute place in the north you are bound for, and old Madame la
+Marquise, her mother, would be mad entirely if all the children left
+her; but our own lady can't quit the little one without leaving his own
+nurse Honor with him!'
+
+'That's news to me intirely, mother,' said Lanty; 'bad luck to it!'
+
+Honor laughed that half-proud, half-sad laugh of mothers when their
+sons outgrow them.  'Fine talking!  Much he cares for the old mother if
+he can see the young girl go with him.'
+
+For Lanty's eyes had brightened at sight of a slight little figure,
+trim to the last degree, with a jaunty little cap on her dark hair, gay
+trimmings to the black apron, dainty shoes and stockings that came
+tripping down the path.  His tongue instantly changed to French from
+what he called English, as in pathetic insinuating modulations he
+demanded how she could be making him weary his very heart out.
+
+'Who bade you?' she retorted.  'I never asked you to waste your time
+here!'
+
+'And will ye not give me a glance of the eyes that have made a cinder
+of my poor heart, when I am going away into the desolate north, among
+the bears and the savages and the heretics?'
+
+'There will be plenty of eyes there to look at your fine green and
+gold, for the sake of the Paris cut; though a great lumbering fellow
+like you does not know how to show it off!'
+
+'And if I bring back a heretic bru to break the heart of the mother,
+will it not be all the fault of the cruelty of Mademoiselle Victorine?'
+
+Here Estelle, unable to withstand Lanty's piteous intonations, broke
+in, 'Never mind, Laurent, Victorine goes with us.  She went to be
+measured for a new pair of slices on purpose!'
+
+'Ah!  I thought I should disembarrass myself of a great troublesome
+Irishman!'
+
+'No!' retorted the boy, 'you knew Laurent was going, for Maitre Hebert
+had just come in to say he must have a lackey's suit!'
+
+'Yes,' said Estelle, 'that was when you took me in your arms and kissed
+me, and said you would follow Madame la Comtesse to the end of the
+world.'
+
+The old nurse laughed heartily, but Victorine cried out, 'Does
+Mademoiselle think I am going to follow naughty little girls who invent
+follies?  It is still free to me to change my mind.  Poor Simon
+Claquette is gnawing his heart out, and he is to be left concierge!'
+
+The clock at the palace chimed eleven, Estelle took her brother's hand,
+Honor rose with little Jacques in her arms, Victorine paced beside her,
+and Lanty as La Jeunesse followed, puffing out his breast, and wielding
+his cane, as they all went home to dejeuner.
+
+Twenty-nine years before the opening of this narrative, just after the
+battle of Boyne Water had ruined the hopes of the Stewarts in Ireland,
+Sir Ulick Burke had attended James II. in his flight from Waterford;
+and his wife had followed him, attended by her two faithful servants,
+Patrick Callaghan, and his wife Honor, carrying her mistress's child on
+her bosom, and her own on her back.
+
+Sir Ulick, or Le Chevalier Bourke, as the French called him, had no
+scruple in taking service in the armies of Louis XIV.  Callaghan
+followed him everywhere, while Honor remained a devoted attendant on
+her lady, doubly bound to her by exile and sorrow.
+
+Little Ulick Burke's foster-sister died, perhaps because she had always
+been made second to him through all the hardships and exposure of the
+journey.  Other babes of both lady and nurse had succumbed to the
+mortality which beset the children of that generation, and the only
+survivors besides the eldest Burke and one daughter were the two
+youngest of each mother, and they had arrived so nearly at the same
+time that Honor Callaghan could again be foster-mother to Phelim Burke,
+a sickly child, reared with great difficulty.
+
+The family were becoming almost French.  Sir Ulick was an intimate
+friend of one of the noblest men of the day, James Fitz-James, Marshal
+Duke of Berwick, who united military talent, almost equal to that of
+his uncle of Marlborough, to an unswerving honour and integrity very
+rare in those evil times.  Under him, Sir Ulick fought in the campaigns
+that finally established the House of Bourbon upon the throne of Spain,
+and the younger Ulick or Ulysse, as his name had been classicalised and
+Frenchified, was making his first campaign as a mere boy at the time of
+the battle of Almanza, that solitary British defeat, for which our
+national consolation is that the French were commanded by an
+Englishman, the Duke of Berwick, and the English by a Frenchman, the
+Huguenot Rubigne, Earl of Galway.  The first English charge was,
+however, fatal to the Chevalier Bourke, who fell mortally wounded, and
+in the endeavour to carry him off the field the faithful Callaghan
+likewise fell.  Sir Ulick lived long enough to be visited by the Duke,
+and to commend his children to his friend's protection.
+
+Berwick was held to be dry and stiff, but he was a faithful friend, and
+well redeemed his promise.  The eldest son, young as he was, obtained
+as wife the daughter of the Marquis de Varennes, and soon distinguished
+himself both in war and policy, so as to receive the title of Comte de
+Bourke.
+
+The French Church was called on to provide for the other two children.
+The daughter, Alice, became a nun in one of the Parisian convents, with
+promises of promotion.  The younger son, Phelim, was weakly in health,
+and of intellect feeble, if not deficient, and was almost dependent on
+the devoted care and tenderness of his foster-brother, Laurence
+Callaghan.  Nobody was startled when Berwick's interest procured for
+the dull boy of ten years old the Abbey of St. Eudoce in Champagne.  To
+be sure the responsibilities were not great, for the Abbey had been
+burnt down a century and a half ago by the Huguenots, and there had
+never been any monks in it since, so the only effect was that little
+Phelim Burke went by the imposing title of Monsieur l'Abbe de St.
+Eudoce, and his family enjoyed as much of the revenues of the estates
+of the Abbey as the Intendant thought proper to transmit to them.  He
+was, to a certain degree, ecclesiastically educated, having just memory
+enough to retain for recitation the tasks that Lanty helped him to
+learn, and he could copy the themes or translations made for him by his
+faithful companion.  Neither boy had the least notion of unfairness or
+deception in this arrangement:  it was only the natural service of the
+one to the other, and if it were perceived in the Fathers of the
+Seminary, whither Lanty daily conducted the young Abbot, they winked at
+it.  Nor, though the quick-witted Lanty thus acquired a considerable
+amount of learning, no idea occurred to him of availing himself of it
+for his own advantage.  It sat outside him, as it were, for 'Masther
+Phelim's' use; and he no more thought of applying it to his own
+elevation than he did of wearing the soutane he brushed for his young
+master.
+
+The Abbe was now five-and-twenty, had received the tonsure, and had
+been admitted to minor Orders, but there was no necessity for him to
+proceed any farther unless higher promotion should be accorded to him
+in recompense of his brother's services.  He was a gentle, amiable
+being, not at all fit to take care of himself; and since the death of
+his mother, he had been the charge of his brother and sister-in-law, or
+perhaps more correctly speaking, of the Dowager Marquise de Varennes,
+for all the branches of the family lived together in the Hotel de
+Varennes at Paris, or its chateau in the country, and the fine old lady
+ruled over all, her son and son-in-law being often absent, as was the
+case at present.
+
+A fresh European war had been provoked by the ambition of the second
+wife of Philip V. of Spain, the Prince for whose cause Berwick had
+fought.  This Queen, Elizabeth Farnese, wanted rank and dominion for
+her own son; moreover, Philip looked with longing eyes at his native
+kingdom of France, all claim to which he had resigned when Spain was
+bequeathed to him; but now that only a sickly child, Louis XV., stood
+between him and the succession in right of blood, he felt his rights
+superior to those of the Duke of Orleans.  Thus Spain was induced to
+become hostile to France, and to commence the war known as that of the
+Quadruple Alliance.
+
+While there was still hope of accommodation, the Comte de Bourke had
+been sent as a special envoy to Madrid, and there continued even after
+the war had broken out, and the Duke of Berwick, resigning all the
+estates he had received from the gratitude of Philip V., had led an
+army across the frontier.
+
+The Count had, however, just been appointed Ambassador to Sweden, and
+was anxious to be joined by his family on the way thither.
+
+The tidings had created great commotion.  Madame de Varennes looked on
+Sweden as an Ultima Thule of frost and snow, but knew that a lady's
+presence was essential to the display required of an ambassador.  She
+strove, however, to have the children left with her; but her daughter
+declared that she could not part with Estelle, who was already a
+companion and friend, and that Ulysse must be with his father, who
+longed for his eldest son, so that only little Jacques, a delicate
+child, was to be left to console his grandmother.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--A JACOBITE WAIF
+
+
+
+'Sac now he's o'er the floods sae gray,
+And Lord Maxwell has ta'en his good-night.'
+LORD MAXWELL'S Good-night.
+
+Madame La Comtesse de Bourke was by no means a helpless fine lady.  She
+had several times accompanied her husband on his expeditions, and had
+only not gone with him to Madrid because he did not expect to be long
+absent, and she sorely rued the separation.
+
+She was very busy in her own room, superintending the packing, and
+assisting in it, when her own clever fingers were more effective than
+those of her maids.  She was in her robe de chambre, a dark blue
+wrapper, embroidered with white, and put on more neatly than was always
+the case with French ladies in deshabille.  The hoop, long stiff stays,
+rich brocade robe, and fabric of powdered hair were equally unsuitable
+to ease or exertion, and consequently were seldom assumed till late in
+the day, when the toilette was often made in public.
+
+So Madame de Bourke's hair was simply rolled out of her way, and she
+appeared in her true colours, as a little brisk, bonny woman, with no
+actual beauty, but very expressive light gray eyes, furnished with
+intensely long black lashes, and a sweet, mobile, lively countenance.
+
+Estelle was trying to amuse little Jacques, and prevent him from
+trotting between the boxes, putting all sorts of undesirable goods into
+them; and Ulysse had collected his toys, and was pleading earnestly
+that a headless wooden horse and a kite, twice as tall as himself, of
+Lanty's manufacture, might go with them.
+
+He was told that another cerf-volant should be made for him at the
+journey's end; but was only partially consoled, and his mother was fain
+to compound for a box of woolly lambs.  Estelle winked away a tear when
+her doll was rejected, a wooden, highly painted lady, bedizened in
+brocade, and so dear to her soul that it was hard to be told that she
+was too old for such toys, and that the Swedes would be shocked to see
+the Ambassador's daughter embracing a doll.  She had, however, to
+preserve her character of a reasonable child, and tried to derive
+consolation from the permission to bestow 'Mademoiselle' upon the
+concierge's little sick daughter, who would be sure to cherish her
+duly.
+
+'But, oh mamma, I pray you to let me take my book!'
+
+'Assuredly, my child.  Let us see!  What?  Telemaque?  Not "Prince
+Percinet and Princess Gracieuse?"'
+
+'I am tired of them, mamma.'
+
+'Nor Madame d'Aulnoy's Fairy Tales?'
+
+'Oh no, thank you, mamma; I love nothing so well as Telemaque.'
+
+'Thou art a droll child!' said her mother.
+
+'Ah, but we are going to be like Telemaque.'
+
+'Heaven forfend!' said the poor lady.
+
+'Yes, dear mamma, I am glad you are going with us instead of staying at
+home to weave and unweave webs.  If Penelope had been like you, she
+would have gone!'
+
+'Take care, is not Jacques acting Penelope?' said Madame de Bourke,
+unable to help smiling at her little daughter's glib mythology, while
+going to the rescue of the embroidery silks, in which her youngest son
+was entangling himself.
+
+At that moment there was a knock at the door, and a message was brought
+that the Countess of Nithsdale begged the favour of a few minutes'
+conversation in private with Madame.  The Scottish title fared better
+on the lips of La Jeunesse than it would have done on those of his
+predecessor.  There was considerable intimacy among all the Jacobite
+exiles in and about Paris; and Winifred, Countess of Nithsdale, though
+living a very quiet and secluded life, was held in high estimation
+among all who recollected the act of wifely heroism by which she had
+rescued her husband from the block.
+
+Madame de Bourke bade the maids carry off the little Jacques, and
+Ulysse followed; but Estelle, who had often listened with rapt
+attention to the story of the escape, and longed to feast her eyes on
+the heroine, remained in her corner, usefully employed in disentangling
+the embroilment of silks, and with the illustrations to her beloved
+Telemaque as a resource in case the conversation should be tedious.
+Children who have hundreds of picture-books to rustle through can
+little guess how their predecessors could once dream over one.
+
+Estelle made her low reverence unnoticed, and watched with eager eyes
+as the slight figure entered, clad in the stately costume that was
+regarded as proper respect to her hostess; but the long loose sacque of
+blue silk was faded, the feuille-morte velvet petticoat frayed, the
+lace on the neck and sleeves washed and mended; there were no jewels on
+the sleeves, though the long gloves fitted exquisitely, no gems in the
+buckles of the high-heeled shoes, and the only ornament in the
+carefully rolled and powdered hair, a white rose.  Her face was thin
+and worn, with pleasant brown eyes.  Estelle could not think her as
+beautiful as Calypso inconsolable for Ulysses, or Antiope receiving the
+boar's a head.  'I know she is better than either,' thought the little
+maid; 'but I wish she was more like Minerva.'
+
+The Countesses met with the lowest of curtseys, and apologies on the
+one side for intrusion, on the other for deshabille, so they concluded
+with an embrace really affectionate, though consideration for powder
+made it necessarily somewhat theatrical in appearance.
+
+These were the stiffest of days, just before formality had become
+unbearable, and the reaction of simplicity had set in; and Estelle had
+undone two desperate knots in the green and yellow silks before the
+preliminary compliments were over, and Lady Nithsdale arrived at the
+point.
+
+'Madame is about to rejoin Monsieur son Mari.'
+
+'I am about to have that happiness.'
+
+'That is the reason I have been bold enough to derange her.'
+
+'Do not mention it.  It is always a delight to see Madame la Comtesse'
+
+'Ah! what will Madame say when she hears that it is to ask a great
+favour of her.'
+
+'Madame may reckon on me for whatever she would command.'
+
+'If you can grant it--oh!  Madame,' cried the Scottish Countess,
+beginning to drop her formality in her eagerness, 'we shall be for ever
+beholden to you, and you will make a wounded heart to sing, besides
+perhaps saving a noble young spirit.'
+
+'Madame makes me impatient to hear what she would have of me,' said the
+French Countess, becoming a little on her guard, as the wife of a
+diplomatist, recollecting, too, that peace with George I. might mean
+war with the Jacobites.
+
+'I know not whether a young kinsman of my Lord's has ever been
+presented to Madame.  His name is Arthur Maxwell Hope; but we call him
+usually by his Christian name.'
+
+'A tall, dark, handsome youth, almost like a Spaniard, or a picture by
+Vandyke?  It seems to me that I have seen him with M. le Comte.'
+(Madame de Bourke could not venture on such a word as Nithsdale.)
+
+'Madame is right.  The mother of the boy is a Maxwell, a cousin not far
+removed from my Lord, but he could not hinder her from being given in
+marriage as second wife to Sir David Hope, already an old man.  He was
+good to her, but when he died, the sons by the first wife were harsh
+and unkind to her and to her son, of whom they had always been jealous.
+The eldest was a creature of my Lord Stair, and altogether a Whig;
+indeed, he now holds an office at the Court of the Elector of Hanover,
+and has been created one of HIS peers.  (The scorn with which the
+gentle Winifred uttered those words was worth seeing, and the other
+noble lady gave a little derisive laugh.)  'These half-brothers
+declared that Lady Hope was nurturing the young Arthur in Toryism and
+disaffection, and they made it a plea for separating him from her, and
+sending him to an old minister, who kept a school, and who was very
+severe and even cruel to the poor boy.  But I am wearying Madame.'
+
+'Oh no, I listen with the deepest interest.'
+
+'Finally, when the King was expected in Scotland, and men's minds were
+full of anger and bitterness, as well as hope and spirit, the boy--he
+was then only fourteen years of age--boasted of his grandfather's
+having fought at Killiecrankie, and used language which the tutor
+pronounced treasonable.  He was punished and confined to his room; but
+in the night he made his escape and joined the royal army.  My husband
+was grieved to see him, told him he had no right to political opinions,
+and tried to send him home in time to make his peace before all was
+lost.  Alas! no.  The little fellow did, indeed, pass out safely from
+Preston, but only to join my Lord Mar.  He was among the gentlemen who
+embarked at Banff; and when my Lord, by Heaven's mercy, had escaped
+from the Tower of London, and we arrived at Paris, almost the first
+person we saw was little Arthur, whom we thought to have been safe at
+home.  We have kept him with us, and I contrived to let his mother know
+that he is living, for she had mourned him as among the slain.'
+
+'Poor mother.'
+
+'You may well pity her, Madame.  She writes to me that if Arthur had
+returned at once from Preston, as my Lord advised, all would have been
+passed over as a schoolboy frolic; and, indeed, he has never been
+attainted; but there is nothing that his eldest brother, Lord Burnside
+as they call him, dreads so much as that it should be known that one of
+his family was engaged in the campaign, or that he is keeping such ill
+company as we are.  Therefore, at her request, we have never called him
+Hope, but let him go by our name of Maxwell, which is his by baptism;
+and now she tells me that if he could make his way to Scotland, not as
+if coming from Paris or Bar-le-Duc, but merely as if travelling on the
+Continent, his brother would consent to his return.'
+
+'Would she be willing that he should live under the usurper?'
+
+'Madame, to tell you the truth,' said Lady Nithsdale, 'the Lady Hope is
+not one to heed the question of usurpers, so long as her son is safe
+and a good lad.  Nay, for my part, we all lived peaceably and happily
+enough under Queen Anne; and by all I hear, so they still do at home
+under the Elector of Hanover.'
+
+'The Regent has acknowledged him,' put in the French lady.
+
+'Well,' said the poor exile, 'I know my Lord felt that it was his duty
+to obey the summons of his lawful sovereign, and that, as he said when
+he took up arms, one can only do one's duty and take the consequences;
+but oh! when I look at the misery and desolation that has come of it,
+when I think of the wives not so happy as I am, when I see my dear Lord
+wearing out his life in banishment, and think of our dear home and our
+poor people, I am tempted to wonder whether it were indeed a duty, or
+whether there were any right to call on brave men without a more
+steadfast purpose not to abandon them!'
+
+'It would have been very different if the Duke of Berwick had led the
+way,' observed Madame de Bourke.  'Then my husband would have gone,
+but, being French subjects, honour stayed both him and the Duke as long
+as the Regent made no move.'  The good lady, of course, thought that
+the Marshal Duke and her own Count must secure victory; but Lady
+Nithsdale was intent on her own branch of the subject, and did not
+pursue 'what might have been.'
+
+'After all,' she said, 'poor Arthur, at fourteen, could have no true
+political convictions.  He merely fled because he was harshly treated,
+heard his grandfather branded as a traitor, and had an enthusiasm for
+my husband, who had been kind to him.  It was a mere boy's escapade,
+and if he had returned home when my Lord bade him, it would only have
+been remembered as such.  He knows it now, and I frankly tell you,
+Madame, that what he has seen of our exiled court has not increased his
+ardour in the cause.'
+
+'Alas, no,' said Madame de Bourke.  'If the Chevalier de St. George
+were other than he is, it would be easier to act in his behalf.'
+
+'And you agree with me, Madame,' continued the visitor, 'that nothing
+can be worse or more hopeless for a youth than the life to which we are
+constrained here, with our whole shadow of hope in intrigue; and for
+our men, no occupation worthy of their sex.  We women are not so ill
+off, with our children and domestic affairs; but it breaks my heart to
+see brave gentlemen's lives thus wasted.  We have done our best for
+Arthur.  He has studied with one of our good clergy, and my Lord
+himself has taught him to fence; but we cannot treat him any longer as
+a boy, and I know not what is to be his future, unless we can return
+him to his own country.'
+
+'Our army,' suggested Madame de Bourke.
+
+'Ah! but he is Protestant.'
+
+'A heretic!' exclaimed the lady, drawing herself up.  'But--'
+
+'Oh, do not refuse me on that account.  He is a good lad, and has lived
+enough among Catholics to keep his opinions in the background.  But you
+understand that it is another reason for wishing to convey him, if not
+to Scotland, to some land like Sweden or Prussia, where his faith would
+not be a bar to his promotion.'
+
+'What is it you would have me do?' said Madame de Bourke, more coldly.
+
+'If Madame would permit him to be included in her passport, as about to
+join the Ambassador's suite, and thus conduct him to Sweden; Lady Hope
+would find means to communicate with him from thence, the poor young
+man would be saved from a ruined career, and the heart of the widow and
+mother would bless you for ever.
+
+Madame de Bourke was touched, but she was a prudent woman, and paused
+to ask whether the youth had shown any tendency to run into temptation,
+from which Lady Nithsdale wished to remove him.
+
+'Oh no,' she answered; 'he was a perfectly good docile lad, though
+high-spirited, submissive to the Earl, and a kind playfellow to her
+little girls; it was his very excellence that made it so unfortunate
+that he should thus be stranded in early youth in consequence of one
+boyish folly.'
+
+The Countess began to yield.  She thought he might go as secretary to
+her Lord, and she owned that if he was a brave young man, he would be
+an addition to her little escort, which only numbered two men besides
+her brother-in-law, the Abbe, who was of almost as little account as
+his young nephew.  'But I should warn you, Madame,' added Madame de
+Bourke, 'that it may be a very dangerous journey.  I own to you, though
+I would not tell my poor mother, that my heart fails me when I think of
+it, and were it not for the express commands of their father, I would
+not risk my poor children on it.'
+
+'I do not think you will find Sweden otherwise than a cheerful and
+pleasant abode,' said Lady Nithsdale.
+
+'Ah! if we were only in Sweden, or with my husband, all would be well!'
+replied the other lady; 'but we have to pass through the mountains, and
+the Catalans are always ill-affected to us French.'
+
+'Nay; but you are a party of women, and belong to an ambassador!' was
+the answer.
+
+'What do those robbers care for that?  We are all the better prey for
+them!  I have heard histories of Spanish cruelty and lawlessness that
+would make you shudder!  You cannot guess at the dreadful presentiments
+that have haunted me ever since I had my husband's letter.'
+
+'There is danger everywhere, dear friend,' said Lady Nithsdale kindly;
+'but God finds a way for us through all.'
+
+'Ah! you have experienced it,' said Madame de Bourke.  'Let us proceed
+to the affairs.  I only thought I should tell you the truth.'
+
+Lady Nithsdale answered for the courage of her protege, and it was
+further determined that he should be presented to her that evening by
+the Earl, at the farewell reception which Madame de Varennes was to
+hold on her daughter's behalf, when it could be determined in what
+capacity he should be named in the passport.
+
+Estelle, who had been listening with all her ears, and trying to find a
+character in Fenelon's romance to be represented by Arthur Hope, now
+further heard it explained that the party were to go southward to meet
+her father at one of the Mediterranean ports, as the English Government
+were so suspicious of Jacobites that he did not venture on taking the
+direct route by sea, but meant to travel through Germany.  Madame de
+Bourke expected to meet her brother at Avignon, and to obtain his
+advice as to her further route.
+
+Estelle heard this with great satisfaction.  'We shall go to the
+Mediterranean Sea and be in danger,' she said to herself, unfolding the
+map at the beginning of her Telemaque; 'that is quite right!  Perhaps
+we shall see Calypso's island.'
+
+She begged hard to be allowed to sit up that evening to see the hero of
+the escape from the Tower of London, as well as the travelling
+companion destined for her, and she prevailed, for mamma pronounced
+that she had been very sage and reasonable all day, and the grandmamma,
+who was so soon to part with her, could refuse her nothing.  So she was
+full dressed, with hair curled, and permitted to stand by the tall
+high-backed chair where the old lady sat to receive her visitors.
+
+The Marquise de Varennes was a small withered woman, with keen eyes,
+and a sort of sparkle of manner, and power of setting people at ease,
+that made her the more charming the older she grew.  An experienced eye
+could detect that she retained the costume of the prime of Louis XIV.,
+when headdresses were less high than that which her daughter was
+obliged to wear.  For the two last mortal hours of that busy day had
+poor Madame de Bourke been compelled to sit under the hands of the
+hairdresser, who was building up, with paste and powder and the like,
+an original conception of his, namely, a northern landscape, with snow-
+laden trees, drifts of snow, diamond icicles, and even a cottage beside
+an ice-bound stream.  She could ill spare the time, and longed to be
+excused; but the artist had begged so hard to be allowed to carry out
+his brilliant and unique idea, this last time of attending on Madame
+l'Ambassadrice, that there was no resisting him, and perhaps her
+strange forebodings made her less willing to inflict a disappointment
+on the poor man.  It would have been strange to contrast the fabric of
+vanity building up outside her head, with the melancholy bodings within
+it, as she sat motionless under the hairdresser's fingers; but at the
+end she roused herself to smile gratefully, and give the admiration
+that was felt to be due to the monstrosity that crowned her.
+Forbearance and Christian patience may be exercised even on a toilette
+a la Louis XV.  Long practice enabled her to walk about, seat herself,
+rise and curtsey without detriment to the edifice, or bestowing the
+powder either on her neighbours or on the richly-flowered white brocade
+she wore; while she received the compliments, one after another, of
+ladies in even more gorgeous array, and gentlemen in velvet coats,
+adorned with gold lace, cravats of exquisite fabric, and diamond shoe
+buckles.
+
+Phelim Burke, otherwise l'Abbe de St. Eudoce, stood near her.  He was a
+thin, yellow, and freckled youth, with sandy hair and typical Irish
+features, but without their drollery, and his face was what might have
+been expected in a half-starved, half-clad gossoon in a cabin, rather
+than surmounting a silken soutane in a Parisian salon; but he had a
+pleasant smile when kindly addressed by his friends.
+
+Presently Lady Nithsdale drew near, accompanied by a tall, grave
+gentleman, and bringing with them a still taller youth, with the
+stiffest of backs and the longest of legs, who, when presented, made a
+bow apparently from the end of his spine, like Estelle's lamented
+Dutch-jointed doll when made to sit down.  Moreover, he was more
+shabbily dressed than any other gentleman present, with a general
+outgrown look about his coat, and darns in his silk stockings; and
+though they were made by the hand of a Countess, that did not add to
+their elegance.  And as he stood as stiff as a ramrod or as a sentinel,
+Estelle's good breeding was all called into play, and her mother's
+heart quailed as she said to herself, 'A great raw Scot!  What can be
+done with him?
+
+Lord Nithsdale spoke for him, thinking he had better go as secretary,
+and showing some handwriting of good quality.  'Did he know any
+languages?'  'French, English, Latin, and some Greek.'  'And, Madame,'
+added Lord Nithsdale, 'not only is his French much better than mine, as
+you would hear if the boy durst open his mouth, but our broad Scotch is
+so like Swedish that he will almost be an interpreter there.'
+
+However hopeless Madame de Bourke felt, she smiled and professed
+herself rejoiced to hear it, and it was further decided that Arthur
+Maxwell Hope, aged eighteen, Scot by birth, should be mentioned among
+those of the Ambassador's household for whom she demanded passports.
+Her position rendered this no matter of difficulty, and it was wiser to
+give the full truth to the home authorities; but as it was desirable
+that it should not be reported to the English Government that Lord
+Burnside's brother was in the suite of the Jacobite Comte de Bourke, he
+was only to be known to the public by his first name, which was not
+much harder to French lips than Maxwell or Hope.
+
+'Tall and black and awkward,' said Estelle, describing him to her
+brother.  'I shall not like him--I shall call him Phalante instead of
+Arthur.'
+
+'Arthur,' said Ulysse; 'King Arthur was turned into a crow!'
+
+'Well, this Arthur is like a crow--a great black skinny crow with torn
+feathers.'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--ON THE RHONE
+
+
+
+'Fairer scenes the opening eye
+Of the day can scarce descry,
+Fairer sight he looks not on
+Than the pleasant banks of Rhone.'
+ARCHBISHOP TRENCH.
+
+Long legs may be in the abstract an advantage, but scarcely so in what
+was called in France une grande Berline.  This was the favourite
+travelling carriage of the eighteenth century, and consisted of a close
+carriage or coach proper, with arrangements on the top for luggage, and
+behind it another seat open, but provided with a large leathern hood,
+and in front another place for the coachman and his companions.  Each
+seat was wide enough to hold three persons, and thus within sat Madame
+de Bourke, her brother-in-law, the two children, Arthur Hope, and
+Mademoiselle Julienne, an elderly woman of the artisan class, femme de
+chambre to the Countess.  Victorine, who was attendant on the children,
+would travel under the hood with two more maids; and the front seat
+would be occupied by the coachman, Laurence Callaghan--otherwise La
+Jeunesse, and Maitre Hebert, the maitre d'hotel.  Fain would Arthur
+have shared their elevation, so far as ease and comfort of mind and
+body went, and the Countess's wishes may have gone the same way; but
+besides that it would have been an insult to class him with the
+servants, the horses of the home establishment, driven by their own
+coachman, took the party the first stage out of Paris; and though
+afterwards the post-horses or mules, six in number, would be ridden by
+their own postilions, there was such an amount of luggage as to leave
+little or no space for a third person outside.
+
+It had been a perfect sight to see the carriage packed; when Arthur,
+convoyed by Lord Nithsdale, arrived in the courtyard of the Hotel de
+Varennes.  Madame de Bourke was taking with her all the paraphernalia
+of an ambassador--a service of plate, in a huge chest stowed under the
+seat, a portrait of Philip V., in a gold frame set with diamonds, being
+included among her jewellery--and Lord Nithsdale, standing by, could
+not but drily remark, 'Yonder is more than we brought with us, Arthur.'
+
+The two walked up and down the court together, unwilling to intrude on
+the parting which, as they well knew, would be made in floods of tears.
+Sad enough indeed it was, for Madame de Varennes was advanced in years,
+and her daughter had not only to part with her, but with the baby
+Jacques, for an unknown space of time; but the self-command and
+restraint of grief for the sake of each other was absolutely unknown.
+It was a point of honour and sentiment to weep as much as possible, and
+it would have been regarded as frigid and unnatural not to go on crying
+too much to eat or speak for a whole day beforehand, and at least two
+afterwards.
+
+So when the travellers descended the steps to take their seats, each
+face was enveloped in a handkerchief, and there were passionate
+embraces, literal pressings to the breast, and violent sobs, as each
+victim, one after the other, ascended the carriage steps and fell back
+on the seat; while in the background, Honor Callaghan was uttering
+Irish wails over the Abbe and Laurence, and the lamentable sound set
+the little lap-dog and the big watch-dog howling in chorus.  Arthur
+Hope, probably as miserable as any of them in parting with his friend
+and hero, was only standing like a stake, and an embarrassed stake (if
+that be possible), and Lord Nithsdale, though anxious for him, heartily
+pitying all, was nevertheless haunted by a queer recollection of Lance
+and his dog, and thinking that French dogs were not devoid of sympathy,
+and that the part of Crab was left for Arthur.
+
+However, the last embrace was given, and the ladies were all packed in,
+while the Abbe with his breast heaving with sobs, his big hat in one
+hand, and a huge silk pocket-handkerchief in the other, did not forget
+his manners, but waved to Arthur to ascend the steps first.
+'Secretary, not guest.  You must remember that another time,' said Lord
+Nithsdale.  'God bless you, my dear lad, and bring you safe back to
+bonny Scotland, a true and leal heart.'
+
+Arthur wrung his friend's hand once more, and disappeared into the
+vehicle; Nurse Honor made one more rush, and uttered another 'Ohone'
+over Abbe Phelim, who followed into the carriage; the door was shut;
+there was a last wail over 'Lanty, the sunbeam of me heart,' as he
+climbed to the box seat; the harness jingled; coachman and postilions
+cracked their whips, the impatient horses dashed out at the porte
+cochere; and Arthur, after endeavouring to dispose of his legs, looked
+about him, and saw, opposite to him, Madame de Bourke lying back in the
+corner in a transport of grief, one arm round her daughter, and her
+little son lying across her lap, both sobbing and crying; and on one
+side of him the Abbe, sunk in his corner, his yellow silk handkerchief
+over his face; on the other, Mademoiselle Julienne, who was crying too,
+but with more moderation, perhaps more out of propriety or from
+infection than from actual grief:  at any rate she had more of her
+senses about her than any one else, and managed to dispose of the
+various loose articles that had been thrown after the travellers, in
+pockets and under cushions.  Arthur would have assisted, but only
+succeeded in treading on various toes and eliciting some small shrieks,
+which disconcerted him all the more, and made Mademoiselle Julienne
+look daggers at him, as she relieved her lady of little Ulysse, lifting
+him to her own knee, where, as he was absolutely exhausted with crying,
+he fell asleep.
+
+Arthur hoped the others would do the same, and perhaps there was more
+dozing than they would have confessed; but whenever there was a
+movement, and some familiar object in the streets of Paris struck the
+eye of Madame, the Abbe, or Estelle, there was a little cry, and they
+went off on a fresh score.
+
+'Poor wretched weak creatures!' he said to himself, as he thought the
+traditions of Scottish heroic women in whose heroism he had gloated.
+And yet he was wrong:  Madame de Bourke was capable of as much resolute
+self-devotion as any of the ladies on the other side of the Channel,
+but tears were a tribute required by the times.  So she gave way to
+them--just as no doubt the women of former days saw nothing absurd in
+bottling them.
+
+Arthur's position among all these weeping figures was extremely
+awkward, all the more so that he carried his sword upright between his
+legs, not daring to disturb the lachrymose company enough to dispose of
+it in the sword case appropriated to weapons.  He longed to take out
+the little pocket Virgil, which Lord Nithsdale had given him, so as to
+have some occupation for his eyes, but he durst not, lest he should be
+thought rude, till, at a halt at a cabaret to water the horses, the
+striking of a clock reminded the Abbe that it was the time for reading
+the Hours, and when the breviary was taken out, Arthur thought his book
+might follow it.
+
+By and by there was a halt at Corbeil, where was the nunnery of Alice
+Bourke, of whom her brother and sister-in-law were to take leave.
+They, with the children, were set down there, while Arthur went on with
+the carriage and servants to the inn to dine.
+
+It was the first visit of Ulysse to the convent, and he was much amazed
+at peeping at his aunt's hooded face through a grating.  However, the
+family were admitted to dine in the refectory; but poor Madame de
+Bourke was fit for nothing but to lie on a bed, attended affectionately
+by her sister-in-law, Soeur Ste. Madeleine.
+
+'O sister, sister,' was her cry, 'I must say it to you--I would not to
+my poor mother--that I have the most horrible presentiments I shall
+never see her again, nor my poor child.  No, nor my husband; I knew it
+when he took leave of me for that terrible Spain.'
+
+'Yet you see he is safe, and you will be with him, sister,' returned
+the nun.
+
+'Ah! that I knew I should!  But think of those fearful Pyrenees, and
+the bandits that infest them--and all the valuables we carry with us!'
+
+'Surely I heard that Marshal Berwick had offered you an escort.'
+
+'That will only attract the attention of the brigands and bring them in
+greater force.  O sister, sister, my heart sinks at the thought of my
+poor children in the hands of those savages!  I dream of them every
+night.'
+
+'The suite of an ambassador is sacred.'
+
+'Ah! but what do they care for that, the robbers?  I know destruction
+lies that way!'
+
+'Nay, sister, this is not like you.  You always were brave, and trusted
+heaven, when you had to follow Ulick.'
+
+'Alas! never had I this sinking of heart, which tells me I shall be
+torn from my poor children and never rejoin him.'
+
+Sister Ste. Madeleine caressed and prayed with the poor lady, and did
+her utmost to reassure and comfort her, promising a neuvaine for her
+safe journey and meeting with her husband.
+
+'For the children,' said the poor Countess.  'I know I never shall see
+him more.'
+
+However, the cheerfulness of the bright Irish-woman had done her some
+good, and she was better by the time she rose to pursue her journey.
+Estelle and Ulysse had been much petted by the nuns, and when all met
+again, to the great relief of Arthur, he found continuous weeping was
+not de rigueur.  When they got in again, he was able to get rid of his
+sword, and only trod on two pair of toes, and got his legs twice
+tumbled over.
+
+Moreover, Madame de Bourke had recovered the faculty of making pretty
+speeches, and when the weapon was put into the sword case, she observed
+with a sad little smile, 'Ah, Monsieur! we look to you as our
+defender!'
+
+'And me too!' cried little Ulysse, making a violent demonstration with
+his tiny blade, and so nearly poking out his uncle's eye that the
+article was relegated to the same hiding-place as 'Monsieur Arture's,'
+and the boy was assured that this was a proof of his manliness.
+
+He had quite recovered his spirits, and as his mother and sister were
+still exhausted with weeping, he was not easy to manage, till Arthur
+took heart of grace, and offering him a perch on his knee, let him look
+out at the window, explaining the objects on the way, which were all
+quite new to the little Parisian boy.  Fortunately he spoke French
+well, with scarcely any foreign accent, and his answers to the little
+fellow's eager questions interspersed with observations on 'What they
+do in my country,' not only kept Ulysse occupied, but gained Estelle's
+attention, though she was too weary and languid, and perhaps, child as
+she was, too much bound by the requirements of sympathy to manifest her
+interest, otherwise than by moving near enough to listen.
+
+That evening the party reached the banks of one of the canals which
+connected the rivers of France, and which was to convey them to the
+Loire and thence to the Rhone, in a huge flat-bottomed barge, called a
+coche d'eau, a sort of ark, with cabins, where travellers could be
+fairly comfortable, space where the berlin could be stowed away in the
+rear, and a deck with an awning where the passengers could disport
+themselves.  From the days of Sully to those of the Revolution, this
+was by far the most convenient and secure mode of transport, especially
+in the south of France.  It was very convenient to the Bourke party;
+who were soon established on the deck.  The lady's dress was better
+adapted to travelling than the full costume of Paris.  It was what she
+called en Amazone--namely, a clothe riding-habit faced with blue, with
+a short skirt, with open coat and waistcoat, like a man's, hair
+unpowdered and tied behind, and a large shady feathered hat.  Estelle
+wore a miniature of the same, and rejoiced in her freedom from the
+whalebone stiffness of her Paris life, skipping about the deck with her
+brother, like fairies, Lanty said, or, as she preferred to make it,
+'like a nymph.'
+
+The water coach moved only by day, and was already arrived before the
+land one brought the weary party to the meeting-place--a picturesque
+water-side inn with a high roof, and a trellised passage down to the
+landing-place, covered by a vine, hung with clusters of ripe grapes.
+
+Here the travellers supped on omelettes and vin ordinaire, and went off
+to bed--Madame and her child in one bed, with the maids on the floor,
+and in another room the Abbe and secretary, each in a grabat, the two
+men-servants in like manner, on the floor.  Such was the privacy of the
+eighteenth century, and Arthur, used to waiting on himself, looked on
+with wonder to see the Abbe like a baby in the hands of his faithful
+foster-brother, who talked away in a queer mixture of Irish-English and
+French all the time until they knelt down and said their prayers
+together in Latin, to which Arthur diligently closed his Protestant
+ears.
+
+Early the next morning the family embarked, the carriage having been
+already put on board; and the journey became very agreeable as they
+glided slowly, almost dreamily along, borne chiefly by the current,
+although a couple of horses towed the barge by a rope on the bank, in
+case of need, in places where the water was more sluggish, but nothing
+more was wanting in the descent towards the Mediterranean.
+
+The accommodation was not of a high order, but whenever there was a
+halt near a good inn, Madame de Bourke and the children landed for the
+night.  And in the fine days of early autumn the deck was delightful,
+and to dine there on the provisions brought on board was a perpetual
+feast to Estelle and Ulysse.
+
+The weather was beautiful, and there was a constant panorama of fair
+sights and scenes.  Harvest first, a perfectly new spectacle to the
+children and then, as they went farther south, the vintage.  The beauty
+was great as they glided along the pleasant banks of Rhone.
+
+Tiers of vines on the hillsides were mostly cut and trimmed like
+currant bushes, and disappointed Arthur, who had expected festoons on
+trellises.  But this was the special time for beauty.  The whole
+population, in picturesque costumes, were filling huge baskets with the
+clusters, and snatches of their merry songs came pealing down to the
+coche d'eau, as it quietly crept along.  Towards evening groups were
+seen with piled baskets on their heads, or borne between them, youths
+and maidens crowned with vines, half-naked children dancing like little
+Bacchanalians, which awoke classical recollections in Arthur and
+delighted the children.
+
+Poor Madame de Bourke was still much depressed, and would sit dreaming
+half the day, except when roused by some need of her children, some
+question, or some appeal for her admiration.  Otherwise, the lovely
+heights, surmounted with tall towers, extinguisher-capped, of castle,
+convent, or church, the clear reaches of river, the beautiful turns,
+the little villages and towns gleaming white among the trees, seemed to
+pass unseen before her eyes, and she might be seen to shudder when the
+children pressed her to say how many days it would be before they saw
+their father.
+
+An observer with a mind at ease might have been much entertained with
+the airs and graces that the two maids, Rosette and Babette, lavished
+upon Laurence, their only squire; for Maitre Hebert was far too distant
+and elderly a person for their little coquetries.  Rosette dealt in
+little terrors, and, if he was at hand, durst not step across a plank
+without his hand, was sure she heard wolves howling in the woods, and
+that every peasant was 'ce barbare;' while Babette, who in conjunction
+with Maitre Hebert acted cook in case of need, plied him with dainty
+morsels, which he was only too apt to bestow on the beggars, or the
+lean and hungry lad who attended on the horses.  Victorine, on the
+other hand, by far the prettiest and most sprightly of the three,
+affected the most supreme indifference to him and his attentions, and
+hardly deigned to give him a civil word, or to accept the cornflowers
+and late roses he brought her from time to time.  'Mere weeds,' she
+said.  And the grapes and Queen Claude plums he brought her were always
+sour.  Yet a something deep blue might often be seen peeping above her
+trim little apron.
+
+Not that Lanty had much time to disport himself in this fashion, for
+the Abbe was his care, and was perfectly happy with a rod of his
+arranging, with which to fish over the side.  Little Ulysse was of
+course fired with the same emulation, and dangled his line for an hour
+together.  Estelle would have liked to do the same, but her mother and
+Mademoiselle Julienne considered the sport not convenable for a
+demoiselle.  Arthur was once or twice induced to try the Abbe's rod,
+but he found it as mere a toy as that of the boy; and the mere action
+of throwing it made his heart so sick with the contrast with the
+'paidling in the burns' of his childhood, that he had no inclination to
+continue the attempt, either in the slow canal or the broadening river.
+
+He was still very shy with the Countess, who was not in spirits to set
+him at ease; and the Abbe puzzled him, as is often the case when
+inexperienced strangers encounter unacknowledged deficiency.  The
+perpetual coaxing chatter, and undisguised familiarity of La Jeunesse
+with the young ecclesiastic did not seem to the somewhat haughty cast
+of his young Scotch mind quite becoming, and he held aloof; but with
+the two children he was quite at ease, and was in truth their great
+resource.
+
+He made Ulysse's fishing-rod, baited it, and held the boy when he used
+it--nay, he once even captured a tiny fish with it, to the ecstatic
+pity of both children.  He played quiet games with them, and told them
+stories--conversed on Telemaque with Estelle, or read to her from his
+one book, which was Robinson Crusoe--a little black copy in pale print,
+with the margins almost thumbed away, which he had carried in his
+pocket when he ran away from school, and nearly knew by heart.
+
+Estelle was deeply interested in it, and varied in opinion whether she
+should prefer Calypso's island or Crusoe's, which she took for as much
+matter of fact as did, a century later, Madame Talleyrand, when, out of
+civility to Mr. Robinson, she inquired after 'ce bon Vendredi.'
+
+She inclined to think she should prefer Friday to the nymphs.
+
+'A whole quantity of troublesome womenfolk to fash one,' said Arthur,
+who had not arrived at the age of gallantry.
+
+'You would never stay there!' said Estelle; 'you would push us over the
+rock like Mentor.  I think you are our Mentor, for I am sure you tell
+us a great deal, and you don't scold.'
+
+'Mentor was a cross old man,' said Ulysse.
+
+To which Estelle replied that he was a goddess; and Arthur very
+decidedly disclaimed either character, especially the pushing over
+rocks.  And thus they glided on, spending a night in the great, busy,
+bewildering city of Lyon, already the centre of silk industry; but more
+interesting to the travellers as the shrine of the martyrdoms.  All
+went to pray at the Cathedral except Arthur.  The time was not come for
+heeding church architecture or primitive history; and he only wandered
+about the narrow crooked streets, gazing at the toy piles of market
+produce, and looking at the stalls of merchandise, but as one unable to
+purchase.  His mother had indeed contrived to send him twenty guineas,
+but he knew that he must husband them well in case of emergencies, and
+Lady Nithsdale had sewn them all up, except one, in a belt which he
+wore under his clothes.
+
+He had arrived at the front of the Cathedral when the party came out.
+Madame de Bourke had been weeping, but looked more peaceful than he had
+yet seen her, and Estelle was much excited.  She had bought a little
+book, which she insisted on her Mentor's reading with her, though his
+Protestant feelings recoiled.
+
+'Ah!' said Estelle, 'but you are not Christian.'
+
+'Yes, truly, Mademoiselle.'
+
+'And these died for the Christian faith.  Do you know mamma said it
+comforted her to pray there; for she was sure that whatever happened,
+the good God can make us strong, as He made the young girl who sat in
+the red-hot chair.  We saw her picture, and it was dreadful.  Do read
+about her, Monsieur Arture.'
+
+They read, and Arthur had candour enough to perceive that this was the
+simple primitive narrative of the death of martyrs struggling for
+Christian truth, long ere the days of superstition and division.
+Estelle's face lighted with enthusiasm.
+
+'Is it not noble to be a martyr?' she asked.
+
+'Oh!' cried Ulysse; 'to sit in a red-hot chair!  It would be worse than
+to be thrown off a rock!  But there are no martyrs in these days,
+sister?' he added, pressing up to Arthur as if for protection.
+
+'There are those who die for the right,' said Arthur, thinking of Lord
+Derwentwater, who in Jacobite eyes was a martyr.
+
+'And the good God makes them strong,' said Estelle, in a low voice.
+'Mamma told me no one could tell how soon we might be tried, and that I
+was to pray that He would make us as brave as St. Blandina!  What do
+you think could harm us, Monsieur, when we are going to my dear papa?'
+
+It was Lanty who answered, from behind the Abbe, on whose angling
+endeavours he was attending.  'Arrah then, nothing at all,
+Mademoiselle.  Nothing in the four corners of the world shall hurt one
+curl of your blessed little head, while Lanty Callaghan is to the
+fore.'
+
+'Ah! but you are not God, Lanty,' said Estelle gravely; 'you cannot
+keep things from happening.'
+
+'The Powers forbid that I should spake such blasphemy!' said Lanty,
+taking off his hat.  ''Twas not that I meant, but only that poor Lanty
+would die ten thousand deaths--worse than them as was thrown to the
+beasts--before one of them should harm the tip of that little finger of
+yours!'
+
+Perhaps the same vow was in Arthur's heart, though not spoken in such
+strong terms.
+
+Thus they drifted on till the old city of Avignon rose on the eyes of
+the travellers, a dark pile of buildings where the massive houses,
+built round courts, with few external windows, recalled that these had
+once been the palaces of cardinals accustomed to the Italian city
+feuds, which made every house become a fortress.
+
+On the wharf stood a gentleman in a resplendent uniform of blue and
+gold, whom the children hailed with cries of joy and outstretched arms,
+as their uncle.  The Marquis de Varennes was soon on board, embracing
+his sister and her children, and conducting them to one of the great
+palaces, where he had rooms, being then in garrison.  Arthur followed,
+at a sign from the lady, who presented him to her brother as 'Monsieur
+Arture'--a young Scottish gentleman who will do my husband the favour
+of acting as his secretary.
+
+She used the word gentilhomme, which conveyed the sense of nobility of
+blood, and the Marquis acknowledged the introduction with one of those
+graceful bows that Arthur hated, because they made him doubly feel the
+stiffness of his own limitation.  He was glad to linger with Lanty, who
+was looking in wonder at the grim buildings.
+
+'And did the holy Father live here?' said he.  'Faith, and 'twas a
+quare taste he must have had; I wonder now if there would be vartue in
+a bit of a stone from his palace.  It would mightily please my old
+mother if there were.'
+
+'I thought it was the wrong popes that lived here,' suggested Arthur.
+
+Lanty looked at him a moment as if in doubt whether to accept a heretic
+suggestion, but the education received through the Abbe came to mind,
+and he exclaimed -
+
+'May be you are in the right of it, sir; and I'd best let the stones
+alone till I can tell which is the true and which is the false.  By the
+same token, little is the difference it would make to her, unless she
+knew it; and if she did, she'd as soon I brought her a hair of the old
+dragon's bristles.'
+
+Lanty found another day or two's journey bring him very nearly in
+contact with the old dragon, for at Tarascon was the cave in which St.
+Martha was said to have demolished the great dragon of Provence with
+the sign of the cross.  Madame de Bourke and her children made a devout
+pilgrimage thereto; but when Arthur found that it was the actual Martha
+of Bethany to whom the legend was appended, he grew indignant, and
+would not accompany the party.  'It was a very different thing from the
+martyrs of Lyon and Vienne!  Their history was credible, but this--'
+
+'Speak not so loud, my friend,' said M. de Varennes.  'Their shrines
+are equally good to console women and children.'
+
+Arthur did not quite understand the tone, nor know whether to be
+gratified at being treated as a man, or to be shocked at the Marquis's
+defection from his own faith.
+
+The Marquis, who was able to accompany his sister as far as Montpelier,
+was amused at her two followers, Scotch and Irish, both fine young men-
+-almost too fine, he averred.
+
+'You will have to keep a careful watch on them when you enter Germany,
+sister,' he said, 'or the King of Prussia will certainly kidnap them
+for his tall regiment of grenadiers.'
+
+'O brother, do not speak of any more dangers:  I see quite enough
+before me ere I can even rejoin my dear husband.'
+
+A very serious council was held between the brother and sister.  The
+French army under Marshal Berwick had marched across on the south side
+on the Pyrenees, and was probably by this time in the county of
+Rousillon, intending to besiege Rosas.  Once with them all would be
+well, but between lay the mountain roads, and the very quarter of Spain
+that had been most unwilling to accept French rule.
+
+The Marquis had been authorised to place an escort at his sister's
+service, but though the numbers might guard her against mere mountain
+banditti, they would not be sufficient to protect her from hostile
+troops, such as might only too possibly be on the way to encounter
+Berwick.  The expense and difficulty of the journey on the mountain
+roads would likewise be great, and it seemed advisable to avoid these
+dangers by going by sea.  Madame de Bourke eagerly acceded to this
+plan, her terror of the wild Pyrenean passes and wilder inhabitants had
+always been such that she was glad to catch at any means of avoiding
+them, and she had made more than one voyage before.
+
+Estelle was gratified to find they were to go by sea, since Telemachus
+did so in a Phoenician ship, and, in that odd dreamy way in which
+children blend fiction and reality, wondered if they should come on
+Calypso's island; and Arthur, who had read the Odyssey, delighted her
+and terrified Ulysse with the cave of Polyphemus.  M. de Varennes could
+only go with his sister as far as Montpelier.  Then he took leave of
+her, and the party proceeded along the shores of the lagoons, in the
+carriage to the seaport of Cette, one of the old Greek towns of the
+Gulf of Lyon, and with a fine harbour full of ships.  Maitre Hebert was
+sent to take a passage on board of one, while his lady and her party
+repaired to an inn, and waited all the afternoon before he returned
+with tidings that he could find no French vessel about to sail for
+Spain, but that there was a Genoese tartane, bound for Barcelona, on
+which Madame la Comtesse could secure a passage for herself and her
+suite, and which would take her thither in twenty-four hours.
+
+The town was full of troops, waiting a summons to join Marshal
+Berwick's army.  Several resplendent officers had already paid their
+respects to Madame l'Ambassadrice, and they concurred in the advice,
+unless she would prefer waiting for the arrival of one of the French
+transports which were to take men and provisions to the army in Spain.
+
+This, however, she declined, and only accepted the services of the
+gentlemen so far as to have her passports renewed, as was needful,
+since they were to be conveyed by the vessel of an independent power,
+though always an ally of France.
+
+The tartane was a beautiful object, a one-decked, single-masted vessel,
+with a long bowsprit, and a huge lateen sail like a wing, and the
+children fell in love with her at first sight.  Estelle was quite sure
+that she was just such a ship as Mentor borrowed for Telemachus; but
+the poor maids were horribly frightened, and Babette might be heard
+declaring she had never engaged herself to be at the mercy of the
+waves, like a bit of lemon peel in a glass of eau sucree.
+
+'You may return,' said Madame de Bourke.  'I compel no one to share our
+dangers and hardships.'
+
+But Babette threw herself on her knees, and declared that nothing
+should ever separate her from Madame!  She was a good creature, but she
+could not deny herself the luxury of the sobs and tears that showed to
+all beholders the extent of her sacrifice.
+
+Madame de Bourke knew that there would be considerable discomfort in a
+vessel so little adapted for passengers, and with only one small cabin,
+which the captain, who spoke French, resigned to her use.  It would
+only, however, be for a short time, and though it was near the end of
+October, the blue expanse of sea was calm as only the Mediterranean can
+be, so that she trusted that no harm would result to those who would
+have to spend the night on dock.
+
+It was a beautiful evening which the little Genoese vessel left the
+harbour and Cette receded in the distance, looking fairer the farther
+it was left behind.  The children were put to bed as soon as they could
+be persuaded to cease from watching the lights in the harbour and the
+phosphorescent wake of the vessel in the water.
+
+That night and the next day were pleasant and peaceful; there was no
+rough weather, and little sickness among the travellers.  Madame de
+Bourke congratulated herself on having escaped the horrors of the
+Pyrenean journey, and the Genoese captain assured her that unless the
+weather should change rapidly, they would wake in sight of the Spanish
+coast the next morning.  If the sea were not almost too calm, they
+would be there already.  The evening was again so delightful that the
+children were glad to hear that they would have again to return by sea,
+and Arthur, who somewhat shrank from his presentation to the Count,
+regretted that the end of the voyage was so near, though Ulysse assured
+him that 'Mon papa would love him, because he could tell such charming
+stories,' and Lanty testified that 'M. le Comte was a mighty friendly
+gentleman.'
+
+Arthur was lying asleep on deck, wrapped in his cloak, when he was
+awakened by a commotion among the sailors.  He started up and found
+that it was early morning, the sun rising above the sea, and the
+sailors all gazing eagerly in that direction.  He eagerly made his way
+to ask if they were in sight of land, recollecting, however, as he made
+the first step, that Spain lay to the west of them--not to the east.
+
+He distinguished the cry from the Genoese sailors, 'Ii Moro--Il Moro,'
+in tones of horror and consternation, and almost at the same moment
+received a shock from Maitre Hebert, who came stumbling against him.
+
+'Pardon, pardon, Monsieur; I go to prepare Madame!  It's the accursed
+Moors.  Let me pass--misericorde, what will become of us?'
+
+Arthur struggled on in search of such of the crew as could speak
+French, but all were in too much consternation to attend to him, and he
+could only watch that to which their eyes were directed, a white sail,
+bright in the morning light, coming up with a rapidity strange and
+fearful in its precision, like a hawk pouncing on its prey, for it did
+not depend on its sails alone, but was propelled by oars.
+
+The next moment Madame de Bourke was on deck, holding by the Abbe's
+arm, and Estelle, her hair on her shoulders, clinging to her.  She
+looked very pale, but her calmness was in contrast to the Italian
+sailors, who were throwing themselves with gestures of despair,
+screaming out vows to the Madonna and saints, and shouting
+imprecations.  The skipper came to speak to her.  'Madame,' he said, 'I
+implore you to remain in your cabin.  After the first, you and all
+yours will be safe.  They cannot harm a French subject; alas! alas
+would it were so with us.'
+
+'How then will it be with you?' she asked.
+
+He made a gesture of deprecation.
+
+'For me it will be ruin; for my poor fellows slavery; that is, if we
+survive the onset.  Madame, I entreat of you, take shelter in the
+cabin, yourself and all yours.  None can answer for what the first rush
+of these fiends may be!  Diavoli! veri diavola!  Ah! for which of my
+sins is it that after fifty voyages I should be condemned to lose my
+all?'
+
+A fresh outburst of screams from the crew summoned the captain.  'They
+are putting out the long-boat,' was the cry; 'they will board us!'
+
+'Madame!  I entreat of you, shut yourself into the cabin.'
+
+And the four maids in various stages of deshabille, adding their cries
+to those of the sailors, tried to drag her in, but she looked about for
+Arthur.  'Come with us, Monsieur,' she said quietly, for after all her
+previous depressions and alarms, her spirit rose to endurance in the
+actual stress of danger.  'Come with us, I entreat of you,' she said.
+'You are named in our passports, and the treaties are such that neither
+French nor English subjects can be maltreated nor enslaved by these
+wretches.  As the captain says, the danger is only in the first
+attack.'
+
+'I will protect you, Madame, with my life,' declared Arthur, drawing
+his sword, as his cheeks and eyes lighted.
+
+'Ah, put that away.  What could you do but lose your own?' cried the
+lady.  'Remember, you have a mother--'
+
+The Genoese captain here turned to insist that Madame and all the women
+should shut themselves instantly into the cabin.  Estelle dragged hard
+at Arthur's hand, with entreaties that he would come, but he lifted her
+down the ladder, and then closed the door on her, Lanty and he being
+both left outside.
+
+'To be shut into a hole like a rat in a trap when there's blows to the
+fore, is more than flesh could stand,' said Lanty, who had seized on a
+hand-spike and was waving it about his head, true shillelagh fashion,
+by hereditary instinct in one who had never behold a faction fight, in
+what ought to have been his native land.
+
+The Genoese captain looked at him as a madman, and shouted in a
+confused mixture of French and Italian to lay down his weapon.
+
+'Quei cattivi--ces scelerats were armed to the teeth--would fire.  All
+lie flat on the deck.'
+
+The gesture spoke for itself.  With a fearful howl all the Italians
+dropped flat; but neither Scotch nor Irish blood brooked to follow
+their example, or perhaps fully perceived the urgency of the need, till
+a volley of bullets were whistling about their ears, though happily
+without injury, the mast and the rigging having protected them, for the
+sail was riddled with holes, and the smoke dimmed their vision as the
+report sounded in their ears.  In another second the turbaned,
+scimitared figures were leaping on board.  The Genoese still lay flat
+offering no resistance, but Lanty and Arthur stood on either side of
+the ladder, and hurled back the two who first approached; but four or
+five more rushed upon them, and they would have been instantly cut
+down, had it not been for a shout from the Genoese, 'Franchi!
+Franchi!'  At that magic word, which was evidently understood, the
+pirates only held the two youths tightly, vituperating them no doubt in
+bad Arabic,--Lanty grinding his teeth with rage, though scarcely
+feeling the pain of the two sabre cuts he had received, and pouring
+forth a volley of exclamations, chiefly, however, directed against the
+white-livered spalpeens of sailors, who had not lifted so much as a
+hand to help him.  Fortunately no one understood a word he said but
+Arthur, who had military experience enough to know there was nothing
+for it but to stand still in the grasp of his captor, a wiry-looking
+Moor, with a fez and a striped sash round his waist.
+
+The leader, a sturdy Turk in a dirty white turban, with a huge sabre in
+his hand, was listening to the eager words, poured out with many
+gesticulations by the Genoese captain, in a language utterly
+incomprehensible to the Scot, but which was the lingua Franca of the
+Mediterranean ports.
+
+It resulted in four men being placed on guard at the hatchway leading
+to the cabin, while all the rest, including Arthur, Hebert, Laurence,
+were driven toward the prow, and made to understand by signs that they
+must not move on peril of their lives.  A Tuck was placed at the helm,
+and the tartane's head turned towards the pirate captor; and all the
+others, who were not employed otherwise, began to ransack the vessel
+and feast on the provisions.  Some hams were thrown overboard, with
+shouts of evident scorn as belonging to the unclean beast, but the wine
+was eagerly drank, and Maitre Hebert uttered a wail of dismay as he saw
+five Moors gorging large pieces of his finest pate.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--WRECKED
+
+
+
+   'They had na sailed upon the sea
+      A day but barely three,
+When the lift grew dark and the wind blew cauld
+   And gurly grew the sea.
+
+   'Oh where will I find a little wee boy
+      Will tak my helm in hand,
+   Till I gae up to my top mast
+      And see for some dry land.'
+SIR PATRICK SPENS.
+
+It was bad enough on the deck of the unfortunate Genoese tartane, but
+far worse below, where eight persons were shut into the stifling
+atmosphere of the cabin, deprived of the knowledge of what was going on
+above, except from the terrific sounds they heard.  Estelle, on being
+shut into the cabin, announced that the Phoenician ship was taken by
+the vessels of Sesostris, but this did not afford any one else the same
+satisfaction as she appeared to derive from it.  Babette and Rosette
+were echoing every scream of the crew, and quite certain that all would
+be massacred, and little Ulysse, wakened by the hubbub, rolled round in
+his berth and began to cry.
+
+Madame de Bourke, very white, but quite calm, insisted on silence and
+then said, 'I do not think the danger is very great to ourselves if you
+will keep silence and not attract attention.  But our hope is in
+Heaven.  My brother, will you lead our prayers?  Recite our office.'
+Obediently the Abbe fell on his knees, and his example was followed by
+the others.  His voice went monotonously on throughout with the Latin.
+The lady, no doubt, followed in her heart, and she made the responses
+as did the others, fitfully; but her hands and eyes were busy, looking
+to the priming of two small pistols, which she took out of her jewel
+case, and the sight of which provoked fresh shrieks from the maids.
+Mademoiselle Julienne meantime was dressing Ulysse, and standing guard
+over him, Estelle watching all with eager bright eyes, scarcely
+frightened, but burning to ask questions, from which her uncle's
+prayers debarred her.
+
+At the volley of shot, Rosette was reduced to quiet by a swoon, but
+Victorine, screaming that the wretches would have killed Laurent, would
+have rushed on deck, had not her mistress forcibly withheld her.  There
+ensued a prodigious yelling and howling, trampling and scuffling, then
+the sounds of strange languages in vituperation or command, steps
+coming down the ladder, sounds of altercation, retreat, splashes in the
+sea, the feeling that the ship was put about--and ever the trampling,
+the wild cries of exultation, which over and over again made the
+prisoners feel choked with the horror of some frightful crisis close at
+hand.  And all the time they were in ignorance, their little window in
+the stern showed them nothing but sea; and even if Madame de Bourke's
+determination had not hindered Victorine from peeping out of the cabin,
+whether prison or fortress, the Moorish sentries outside kept the door
+closed.
+
+How long this continued was scarcely to be guessed.  It was hours by
+their own feelings; Ulysse began to cry from hunger, and his mother
+gave him and Estelle some cakes that were within reach.  Mademoiselle
+Julienne begged her lady to share the repast, reminding her that she
+would need all her strength.  The Abbe, too, was hungry enough, and
+some wine and preserved fruits coming to light all the prisoners made a
+meal which heartened most of them considerably; although the heat was
+becoming terrible, as the sun rose higher in the sky, and very little
+air could be obtained through the window, so that poor Julienne could
+not eat, and Rosette fell into a heavy sleep in the midst of her sighs.
+Even Estelle, who had got out her Telemaque, like a sort of oracle in
+the course of being verified, was asleep over it, when fresh noises and
+grating sounds were board, new steps on deck, and there were steps and
+voices.  The Genoese captain was heard exclaiming, 'Open, Madame! you
+can do so safely.  This is the Algerine captain, who is bound to
+protect you.'
+
+The maids huddled together behind their lady, who stood forward as the
+door opened to admit a stout, squarely-built man in the typical dress
+of a Turk,--white turban, purple coat, broad sash crammed with weapons,
+and ample trousers,--a truculent-looking figure which made the maids
+shudder and embrace one another with suppressed shrieks, but which
+somehow, even in the midst of his Eastern salaam, gave the Countess a
+sense that he was acting a comedy, and carried her involuntarily back
+to the Moors whom she had seen in the Cid on the stage.  And looking
+again, she perceived that though brown and weather-beaten, there was a
+certain Northern ruddiness inherent in his complexion; that his eyes
+were gray, so far as they were visible between the surrounding puckers;
+and his eyebrows, moustache, and beard not nearly so dark as the hair
+of the Genoese who stood cringing beside him as interpreter.  She
+formed her own conclusions and adhered to them, though he spoke in bad
+Arabic to the skipper, who proceeded to explain that El Reis Hamed
+would offer no injury to Madame la Comtesse, her suite or property,
+being bound by treaty between the Dey and the King of France, but that
+he required to see her passport.  There was a little blundering in the
+Italian's French rendering, and Madame de Bourke was quick to detect
+the perception of it in the countenance of the Reis, stolid though it
+was.  She felt no doubt that he was a renegade of European birth, and
+watched, with much anxiety as well as curiosity, his manner of dealing
+with her passports, which she would not let out of her own hand.  She
+saw in a moment that though he let the Genoese begin to interpret them,
+his eyes were following intelligently; and she hazarded the
+observation, 'You understand, sir.  You are Frank.'
+
+He turned one startled glance towards the door to see if there were any
+listeners, and answered, 'Hollander, Madame.'
+
+The Countess had travelled with diplomatists all her life, and knew a
+little of the vernacular of most languages, and it was in Dutch--broken
+indeed, but still Dutch--that she declared that she was sure that she
+might rely on his protection--a security which in truth she was far
+from feeling; for while some of these unfortunate men, renegades only
+from weakness, yearned after their compatriots and their lost home and
+faith, others out-heroded the Moors themselves in ferocity, especially
+towards the Christian captives; nor was a Dutchman likely to have any
+special tenderness in his composition, above all towards the French.
+However, there was a certain smile on the lips of Reis Hamed, and he
+answered with a very hearty, 'Ja! ja!  Madame.  Upon my soul I will let
+no harm come to you or the pretty little ones, nor the young vrouwkins
+either, if they will keep close.  You are safe by treaty.  A Reis would
+have to pay a heavy reckoning with Mehemed Dey if a French ambassador
+had to complain of him, and you will bear me witness, Madame, that I
+have not touched a hair of any of your heads!'
+
+'I am sure you wish me well, sir,' said Madame de Bourke in a dignified
+way, 'but I require to be certified of the safety of the rest of my
+suite, my steward, my lackey, and my husband's secretary, a young
+gentleman of noble birth.'
+
+'They are safe, Madame.  This Italian slave can bear me witness that no
+creature has been harmed since my crew boarded this vessel.'
+
+'I desire then that they may be released, as being named in my
+passport.'
+
+To this the Dutchman consented.
+
+Whereupon the skipper began to wring his hands, and piteously to
+beseech Madame to intercede for him, but the Dutchman cut him short
+before she could speak.  'Dog of an Italian, the lady knows better!
+You and your fellows are our prize--poor enough after all the trouble
+you have given us in chasing you.'
+
+Madame de Bourke spoke kindly to the poor man, telling him that though
+she could do nothing for him now, it was possible that she might when
+she should have rejoined her husband, and she then requested the Reis
+to land her and her suite in his long-boat on the Spanish coast, which
+could be seen in the distance, promising him ample reward if he could
+do so.
+
+To this he replied:  'Madame, you ask what would be death to me.'
+
+He went on to explain that if he landed her on Christian ground,
+without first presenting her and her passport to the Dey and the French
+Consul, his men might represent him as acting in the interests of the
+Christians, and as a traitor to the Algerine power, by taking a bribe
+from a person belonging to a hostile state, in which case the bowstring
+would be the utmost mercy he could expect; and the reigning Dey,
+Mehemed, having been only recently chosen, it was impossible to guess
+how he might deal with such cases.  Once at Algiers, he assured Madame
+de Bourke that she would have nothing to fear, as she would be under
+the protection of the French Consul; and she had no choice but to
+submit, though much concerned for the continued anxiety to her husband,
+as well as the long delay and uncertainty of finding him.
+
+Still, when she perceived that it was inevitable, she complained no
+more, and the Dutchman went on with a certain bluff kindness--as one
+touched by her courtesy--to offer her the choice of remaining in the
+tartane or coming on board his larger vessel.  The latter he did not
+recommend, as he had a crew of full two hundred Turks and Moors, and it
+would be necessary to keep herself and all her women as closely as
+possible secluded in the cabins; and even then, he added, that if once
+seen he could hardly answer for some of those corsairs not endeavouring
+to secure a fair young Frank girl for his harem; and as his eye fell on
+Rosette, she bridled and hid herself behind Mademoiselle Julienne.
+
+He must, he said, remove all the Genoese, but he would send on board
+the tartane only seven men on whom he could perfectly depend for
+respectful behaviour, so that the captives would be able to take the
+air on deck as freely as before.  There was no doubt that he was in
+earnest, and the lady accepted his offer with thanks, all the stronger
+since she and all around her were panting and sick for want of fresh
+air.
+
+It was a great relief when he took her on deck with him that she might
+identify the three men whom she claimed as belonging to her suite.
+Arthur, Lanty, and Hebert, who, in their vague knowledge of the
+circumstances, had been dreading the oar for the rest of their lives,
+could hardly believe their good fortune when she called them up to her,
+and the Abbe gripped Lanty's arm as if he would never let him go again.
+The poor Italians seemed to feel their fate all the harder for the
+deliverance of those three, and sobbed, howled, and wept so piteously
+that Arthur wondered how strong men could so give way, while Lanty's
+tears sprang forth in sympathy, and he uttered assurances and made
+signs that he would never cease to pray for their rescue.
+
+'Though,' as he observed, 'they were poor creatures that hadn't the
+heart of a midge, when there was such a chance of a fight while the
+haythen spalpeens were coming on board.'
+
+Here Lanty was called on to assist Hebert in identifying his lady's
+bales of goods, when all those of the unfortunate Genoese were put on
+board the corsair's vessel.  A sail-cloth partition was extended across
+the deck by the care of the Dutchman, 'who'--as Lanty said--'for a
+haythen apostate was a very dacent man.'  He evidently had a strong
+compassion and fellow-feeling for the Christian lady, and assured her
+that she might safely take the air and sit on deck as much as she
+pleased behind its shelter; and he likewise carefully selected the
+seven of his crew whom he sent on board to work the ship, the chief
+being a heavy-looking old Turk, with a chocolate-coloured visage
+between a huge white beard and eyebrows, and the others mere lads,
+except one, who, from an indefinable European air about him, was
+evidently a renegade, and could speak a sort of French, so as to hold
+communication with the captives, especially Lanty, who was much quicker
+than any of the rest in picking up languages, perhaps from having from
+his infancy talked French and English (or rather Irish), and likewise
+learnt Latin with his foster-brother.  This man was the only one
+permitted to go astern of the partition, in case of need, to attend to
+the helm; but the vessel was taken in tow by the corsair, and needed
+little management.  The old Turk seemed to regard the Frankish women
+like so many basilisks, and avoided turning a glance in their
+direction, roaring at his crew if he only saw them approaching the
+sail-cloth, and keeping a close watch upon the lithe black-eyed youths,
+whose brown limbs carried them up the mast with the agility of monkeys.
+There was one in especial--a slight, well-made fellow about twenty,
+with a white turban cleaner than the rest--who contrived to cast
+wonderful glances from the masthead over the barrier at Rosette, who
+actually smiled in return at ce pauvre garcon, and smiled the more for
+Mademoiselle Julienne's indignation.  Suddenly, however, a shrill shout
+made him descend hastily, and the old Turk's voice might be heard in
+its highest key, no doubt shrieking out maledictions on all the
+ancestry of the son of a dog who durst defile his eyes with gazing at
+the shameless daughters of the Frank.  Little Ulysse was, however,
+allowed to disport himself wherever he pleased; and after once, under
+Arthur's protection, going forward, he found himself made very welcome,
+and offered various curiosities, such as shells, corals, and a curious
+dried little hippocampus or seahorse.
+
+This he brought back in triumph, to the extreme delight of his sister's
+classical mind.  'Oh mamma, mamma,' she cried, 'Ulysse really has got
+the skeleton of a Triton.  It is exactly like the stone creatures in
+the Champs Elysees.'
+
+There was no denying the resemblance, and it so increased the confusion
+in Estelle's mind between the actual and the mythological, that Arthur
+told her that she was looking out for the car of Amphitrite to arise
+from the waters.  Anxiety and trouble had made him much better
+acquainted with Madame de Bourke, who was grateful to him for his
+kindness to her children, and not without concern as to whether she
+should be able to procure his release as well as her own at Algiers.
+For Laurence Callaghan she had no fears, since he was born at Paris,
+and a naturalised French subject like her husband and his brother; but
+Arthur was undoubtedly a Briton, and unless she could pass him off as
+one of her suite, it would depend on the temper of the English Consul
+whether he should be viewed as a subject or as a rebel, or simply left
+to captivity until his Scottish relations should have the choice of
+ransoming him.
+
+She took a good deal of pains to explain the circumstances to him as
+well as to all who could understand them; for though she hoped to keep
+all together, and to be able to act for them herself, no one could
+guess how they might be separated, and she could not shake off that
+foreboding of misfortune which had haunted her from the first.
+
+The kingdom of Algiers was, she told them, tributary to the Turkish
+Sultan, who kept a guard of Janissaries there, from among whom they
+themselves elected the Dey.  He was supposed to govern by the consent
+of a divan, but was practically as despotic as any Eastern sovereign;
+and the Aga of the Janissaries was next in authority to him.  Piracy on
+the Mediterranean was, as all knew, the chief occupation of the Turks
+and Moors of any spirit or enterprise, a Turk being in authority in
+each vessel to secure that the Sultan had his share, and that the
+capture was so conducted as not to involve Turkey in dangerous wars
+with European powers.  Capture by the Moors had for several centuries
+been one of the ordinary contingencies of a voyage, and the misfortune
+that had happened to the party was not at all an unusual one.
+
+In 1687, however, the nuisance had grown to such a height that Admiral
+Du Quesne bombarded the town of Algiers, and destroyed all the
+fortifications, peace being only granted on condition that a French
+Consul should reside at Algiers, and that French ships and subjects
+should be exempt from this violence of the corsairs.
+
+The like treaties existed with the English, but had been very little
+heeded by the Algerines till recently, when the possession of Gibraltar
+and Minorca had provided harbours for British ships, which exercised a
+salutary supervision over these Southern sea-kings.  The last Dey, Baba
+Hali, had been a wise and prudent man, anxious to repress outrage, and
+to be on good terms with the two great European powers; but he had died
+in the spring of the current year, 1718, and the temper of his
+successor, Mehemed, had not yet been proved.
+
+Madame de Bourke had some trust in the Dutch Reis, renegade though he
+was.  She had given him her beautiful watch, set with brilliants, and
+he had taken it with a certain gruff reluctance, declaring that he did
+not want it,--he was ready enough to serve her without such a toy.
+
+Nevertheless the lady thought it well to impress on each and all, in
+case of any separation or further disaster, that their appeal must be
+to the French Consul, explaining minutely the forms in which it should
+be made.
+
+'I cannot tell you,' she said to Arthur, 'how great a comfort it is to
+me to have with me a gentleman, one of intelligence and education to
+whom I can confide my poor children.  I know you will do your utmost to
+protect them and restore them to their father.'
+
+'With my very heart's blood, Madame.'
+
+'I hope that may not be asked of you, Monsieur,' she returned with a
+faint smile,--'though I fear there may be much of perplexity and
+difficulty in the way before again rejoining him.  You see where I have
+placed our passports?  My daughter knows it likewise; but in case of
+their being taken from you, or any other accident happening to you, I
+have written these two letters, which you had better bear about your
+person.  One is, as you see, to our Consul at Algiers, and may serve as
+credentials; the other is to my husband, to whom I have already written
+respecting you.'
+
+'A thousand thanks, Madame,' returned Arthur.  'But I hope and trust we
+may all reach M. le Comte in safety together.  You yourself said that
+you expected only a brief detention before he could be communicated
+with, and this captain, renegade though he be, evidently has a respect
+for you.'
+
+'That is quite true,' she returned, 'and it may only be my foolish
+heart that forebodes evil; nevertheless, I cannot but recollect that
+c'est l'imprevu qui arrive.'
+
+'Then, Madame, that is the very reason there should be no misfortune,'
+returned Arthur.
+
+It was on the second day after the capture of the tartane that the sun
+set in a purple angry-looking bank of cloud, and the sea began to heave
+in a manner which renewed the earlier distresses of the voyage to such
+as were bad sailors.  The sails both of the corsair and of the tartane
+were taken in, and it was plain that a rough night was to be expected.
+The children were lashed into their berths, and all prepared themselves
+to endure.  The last time Arthur saw Madame de Bourke's face, by the
+light of the lamp swinging furiously from the cabin roof, as he
+assisted in putting in the dead lights, it bore the same fixed
+expression of fortitude and resignation as when she was preparing to be
+boarded by the pirates.
+
+He remained on deck, but it was very perilous, for the vessel was so
+low in the water that the waves dashed over it so wildly that he could
+hardly help being swept away.  It was pitch dark, too, and the lantern
+of the other vessel could only just be seen, now high above their
+heads, now sinking in the trouble of the sea, while the little tartane
+was lifted up as though on a mountain; and in a kind of giddy dream, he
+thought of falling headlong upon her deck.  Finally he found himself
+falling.  Was he washed overboard?  No; a sharp blow showed him that he
+had only fallen down the hatchway, and after lying still a moment, he
+heard the voices of Lanty and Hebert, and presently they were all
+tossed together by another lurch of the ship.
+
+It was a night of miseries that seemed endless, and when a certain
+amount of light appeared, and Arthur and Lanty crawled upon deck, the
+tempest was unabated.  They found themselves still dashed, as if their
+vessel were a mere cork, on the huge waves; rushes of water coming over
+them, whether from sea or sky there was no knowing, for all seemed
+blended together in one mass of dark lurid gray; and where was the
+Algerine ship--so lately their great enemy, now watched for as their
+guide and guardian?
+
+It was no place nor time for questions, even could they have been heard
+or understood.  It was scarcely possible even to be heard by one
+another, and it was some time before they convinced themselves that the
+large vessel had disappeared.  The cable must have parted in the night,
+and they were running with bare poles before the gale; the seamanship
+of the man at the helm being confined to avoiding the more direct blows
+of the waves, on the huge crests of which the little tartane rode--
+gallantly perhaps in mariners' eyes, but very wretchedly to the
+feelings of the unhappy landsmen within her.
+
+Arthur thought of St. Paul, and remembered with dismay that it was many
+days before sun or moon appeared.  He managed to communicate his
+recollection to Lanty, who exclaimed, 'And he was a holy man, and he
+was a prisoner too.  He will feel for us if any man can in this sore
+strait!  Sancte Paule, ora pro nobis.  An' haven't I got the blessed
+scapulary about me neck that will bring me through worse than this?'
+
+The three managed to get down to tell the unfortunate inmates of the
+cabin what was the state of things, and to carry them some food, though
+at the expense of many falls and severe blows; and almost all of them
+were too faint or nauseated to be able to swallow such food as could
+survive the transport under such circumstances.  Yet high-spirited
+little Estelle entreated to be carried on deck, to see what a storm was
+like.  She had read of them so often, and wanted to see as well as to
+feel.  She was almost ready to cry when Arthur assured her it was quite
+impossible, and her mother added a grave order not to trouble him.
+
+Madame de Bourke looked so exhausted by the continual buffeting and the
+closeness of the cabin, and her voice was so weak, that Arthur grieved
+over the impossibility of giving her any air.  Julienne tried to make
+her swallow some eau de vie; but the effort of steadying her hand
+seemed too much for her, and after a terrible lurch of the ship, which
+lodged the poor bonne in the opposite corner of the cabin, the lady
+shook her head and gave up the attempt.  Indeed, she seemed so worn out
+that Arthur--little used to the sight of fainting--began to fear that
+her forebodings of dying before she could rejoin her husband were on
+the point of being realised.
+
+However, the gale abated towards evening, and the youth himself was so
+much worn out that the first respite was spent in sleep.  When he
+awoke, the sea was much calmer, and the eastern sun was rising in glory
+over it; the Turks, with their prayer carpets in a line, were
+simultaneously kneeling and bowing in prayer, with their faces turned
+towards it.  Lanty uttered an only too emphatic curse upon the
+misbelievers, and Arthur vainly tried to make him believe that their
+'Allah il Allah' was neither addressed to Mohammed nor the sun.
+
+'Sure and if not, why did they make their obeisance to it all one as
+the Persians in the big history-book Master Phelim had at school?'
+
+'It's to the east they turn Lanty, not to the sun.'
+
+'And what right have the haythen spalpeens to turn to the east like
+good Christians?'
+
+''Tis to their Prophet's tomb they look, at Mecca.'
+
+'There, an' I tould you they were no better than haythens,' returned
+Lanty, 'to be praying and knocking their heads on the bare boards--that
+have as much sense as they have--to a dead man's tomb.'
+
+Arthur's Scotch mind thought the Moors might have had the best of it in
+argument when he recollected Lanty's trust in his scapulary.
+
+They tried to hold a conversation with the Reis, between lingua Franca
+and the Provencal of the renegade; and they came to the conclusion that
+no one had the least idea where they were, or where they were going;
+the ship's compass had been broken in the boarding, and there was no
+chart more available than the little map in the beginning of Estelle's
+precious copy of Telemaque.  The Turkish Reis did not trouble himself
+about it, but squatted himself down with his chibouque, abandoning all
+guidance of the ship, and letting her drift at the will of wind and
+wave, or, as he said, the will of Allah.  When asked where he thought
+she was going, he replied with solemn indifference, 'Kismet;' and all
+the survivors of the crew--for one had been washed overboard--seemed to
+share his resignation.
+
+The only thing he did seem to care for was that if the infidel woman
+chose to persist in coming on deck, the canvas screen--which had been
+washed overboard--should be restored.  This was done, and Madame de
+Bourke was assisted to a couch that had been prepared for her with
+cloaks, where the air revived her a little; but she listened with a
+faint smile to the assurances of Arthur, backed by Hebert, that this
+abandonment to fate gave the best chance.  They might either be picked
+up by a Christian vessel or go ashore on a Christian coast; but Madame
+de Bourke did not build much on these hopes.  She knew too well what
+were the habits of wreckers of all nations, to think that it would make
+much difference whether they were driven on the coast of Sicily or of
+Africa--'barring,' as Lanty said, 'that they should get Christian
+burial in the former case.'
+
+'We are in the hands of a good God.  That at least we know,' said the
+Countess.  'And He can hear us through, whether for life in Paradise,
+or trial a little longer here below.'
+
+'Like Blandina,' observed Estelle.
+
+'Ah! my child, who knows whether trials like even that blessed saint's
+may not be in reserve even for your tender age.  When I think of these
+miserable men, who have renounced their faith, I see what fearful
+ordeals there may be for those who fall into the hands of those
+unbelievers.  Strong men have yielded.  How may it not be with my poor
+children?'
+
+'God made Blandina brave, mamma.  I will pray that He may make me so.'
+
+Land was in sight at last.  Purple mountains rose to the south in wild
+forms, looking strangely thunderous and red in the light of the sinking
+sun.  A bay, with rocks jutting out far into the sea, seemed to embrace
+them with its arms.  Soundings were made, and presently the Reis
+decided on anchoring.  It was a rocky coast, with cliffs descending
+into the sea, covered with verdure, and the water beneath was clear as
+glass.
+
+'Have we escaped the Syrtes to fall upon AEneas' cave?' murmured Arthur
+to himself.
+
+'And if we could meet Queen Dido, or maybe Venus herself, 'twould be no
+bad thing!' observed Lanty, who remembered his Virgil on occasion.
+'For there's not a drop of wather left barring eau de vie, and if these
+Moors get at that, 'tis raving madmen they would be.'
+
+'Do they know where we are?' asked Arthur.
+
+'Sorrah a bit!' returned Lanty, 'tho' 'tis a pretty place enough.  If
+my old mother was here, 'tis her heart would warm to the mountains.'
+
+'Is it Calypso's Island?' whispered Ulysse to his sister.
+
+'See, what are they doing?' cried Estelle.  'There are people--don't
+you see, white specks crowding down to the water.'
+
+There was just then a splash, and two bronzed figures were seen setting
+forth from the tartane to swim to shore.  The Turkish Reis had
+despatched them, to ascertain whether the vessel had drifted, and who
+the inhabitants might be.
+
+A good while elapsed before one of these scouts returned.  There was a
+great deal of talk and gesticulating round him, and Lanty, mingling
+with it, brought back word that the place was the Bay of Golo, not far
+from Djigheli, and just beyond the Algerine frontier.  The people were
+Cabeleyzes, a wild race of savage dogs, which means dogs according the
+Moors, living in the mountains, and independent of the Dey.  A
+considerable number rushed to the coast, armed, and in great numbers,
+perceiving the tartane to be an Italian vessel, and expecting a raid by
+Sicilian robbers on their cattle; but the Moors had informed them that
+it was no such thing, but a prize taken in the name of the Dey of
+Algiers, in which an illustrious French Bey's harem was being conveyed
+to Algiers.  From that city the tartane was now about a day's sail,
+having been driven to the eastward of it during the storm.  'The
+Turkish commander evidently does not like the neighbourhood,' said
+Arthur, 'judging by his gestures.'
+
+'Dogs and sons of dogs are the best names he has for them,' rejoined
+Lanty.
+
+'See!  They have cut the cable!  Are we not to wait for the other man
+who swam ashore?'
+
+So it was.  A favourable wind was blowing, and the Reis, being by no
+means certain of the disposition of the Cabeleyzes, chose to leave them
+behind him as soon as possible, and make his way to Algiers, which
+began to appear to his unfortunate passengers like a haven of safety.
+
+They were not, however, out of the bay when the wind suddenly veered,
+and before the great lateen sail could be reefed, it had almost caused
+the vessel to be blown over.  There was a pitching and tossing almost
+as violent as in the storm, and then wind and current began carrying
+the tartane towards the rocky shore.  The Reis called the men to the
+oars, but their numbers were too few to be availing, and in a very few
+minutes more the vessel was driven hopelessly towards a mass of rocks.
+
+Arthur, the Abbe, Hebert, and Lanty were all standing together at the
+head of the vessel.  The poor Abbe seemed dazed, and kept dreamily
+fingering his rosary, and murmuring to himself.  The other three
+consulted in a low voice.
+
+'Were it not better to have the women here on deck?' asked Arthur.
+
+'Eh, non!' sobbed Master Hebert.  'Let not my poor mistress see what is
+coming on her and her little ones!'
+
+'Ah! and 'tis better if the innocent creatures must be drowned, that it
+should be without being insensed of it till they wake in our Lady's
+blessed arms,' added Lanty.  'Hark! and they are at their prayers.'
+
+But just then Victorine rushed up from below, and throwing her arms
+round Lanty, cried, 'Oh!  Laurent, Laurent.  It is not true that it is
+all over with us, is it?  Oh! save me! save me!'
+
+'And if I cannot save you, mine own heart's core, we'll die together,'
+returned the poor fellow, holding her fast.  'It won't last long,
+Victorine, and the saints have a hold of my scapulary.'
+
+He had scarcely spoken when, lifted upon a wave, the tartane dashed
+upon the rocks, and there was at once a horrible shivering and crashing
+throughout her--a frightful mingling of shrieks and yells of despair
+with the wild roar of the waves that poured over her.  The party at the
+head of the vessel were conscious of clinging to something, and when
+the first burly-burly ceased a little they found themselves all
+together against the bulwark, the vessel almost on her beam ends,
+wedged into the rocks, their portion high and dry, but the stern, where
+the cabin was, entirely under water.
+
+Victorine screamed aloud, 'My lady! my poor lady.'
+
+'I see--I see something,' cried Arthur, who had already thrown off his
+coat, and in another moment he had brought up Estelle in his arms,
+alive, sobbing and panting.  Giving her over to the steward, he made
+another dive, but then was lost sight of, and returned no more, nor was
+anything to be seen of the rest.  Shut up in the cabin, Madame de
+Bourke, Ulysse, and the three maids must have been instantly drowned,
+and none of the crew were to be seen.  Maitre Hebert hold the little
+girl in his arms, glad that, though living, she was only half-
+conscious.  Victorine, sobbing, hung heavily on Lanty, and before he
+could free his hands he perceived to his dismay that the Abbe,
+unassisted, was climbing down from the wreck upon the rock, scarcely
+perhaps aware of his danger.
+
+Lanty tried to put Victorine aside, and called out, 'Your reverence,
+wait--Masther Phelim, wait till I come and help you.'  But the girl,
+frantic with terror, grappled him fast, screaming to him not to let her
+go--and at the same moment a wave broke over the Abbe.  Lanty, almost
+wild, was ready to leap into it after him, thinking he must be sucked
+back with it, but behold! he still remained clinging to the rock.
+Instinct seemed to serve him, for he had stuck his knife into the rock
+and was holding on by it.  There seemed no foothold, and while Lanty
+was deliberating how to go to his assistance, another wave washed him
+off and bore him to the next rock, which was only separated from the
+mainland by a channel of smoother water.  He tried to catch at a
+floating plank, but in vain; however, an oar next drifted towards him,
+and by it he gained the land, but only to be instantly surrounded by a
+mob of Cabeleyzes, who seemed to be stripping off his garments.  By
+this time many were swimming towards the wreck; and Estelle, who had
+recovered breath and senses, looked over Hebert's shoulder at them.
+'The savages! the infidels!' she said.  'Will they kill me? or will
+they try to make me renounce my faith?  They shall kill me rather than
+make me yield.'
+
+'Ah! yes, my dear demoiselle, that is right.  That is the only way.  It
+is my resolution likewise,' returned Hebert.  'God give us grace to
+persist.'
+
+'My mamma said so,' repeated the child.  'Is she drowned, Maitre
+Hebert?'
+
+'She is happier than we are, my dear young lady.'
+
+'And my little brother too!  Ah! then I shall remember that they are
+only sending me to them in Paradise.'
+
+By this time the natives were near the wreck, and Estelle, shuddering,
+clung closer to Hebert; but he had made up his mind what to do.  'I
+must commit you to these men, Mademoiselle,' he said; 'the water is
+rising--we shall perish if we remain here.'
+
+'Ah! but it would not hurt so much to be drowned,' said Estelle, who
+had made up her mind to Blandina's chair.
+
+'I must endeavour to save you for your father, Mademoiselle, and your
+poor grandmother!  There! be a good child!  Do not struggle.'
+
+He had attracted the attention of some of the swimmers, and he now
+flung her to them.  One caught her by an arm, another by a leg, and she
+was safely taken to the shore, where at once a shoe and a stocking were
+taken from her, in token of her becoming a captive; but otherwise her
+garments were not meddled with; in which she was happier than her
+uncle, whom she found crouched up on a rock, stripped almost to the
+skin, so that he shrank from her, when she sprang to his side amid the
+Babel of wild men and women, who were shouting in exultation and wonder
+over his big flapped hat, his soutane and bands, pointing at his white
+limbs and yellow hair--or, what amazed them even more, Estelle's light,
+flaxen locks, which hung soaked around her.  She felt a hand pulling
+them to see whether anything so strange actually grew on her head, and
+she turned round to confront them with a little gesture of defiant
+dignity that evidently awed them, for they kept their hands off her,
+and did not interfere as she stood sentry over her poor shivering
+uncle.
+
+Lanty was by this time trying to drag Victorine over the rocks and
+through the water.  The poor Parisienne was very helpless, falling,
+hurting herself, and screaming continually; and trebly, when a couple
+of natives seized upon her, and dragged her ashore, where they
+immediately snatched away her mantle and cap, pulled off her gold chain
+and cross, and tore out her earrings with howls of delight.
+
+Lanty, struggling on, was likewise pounced upon, and bereft of his fine
+green and gold livery coat and waistcoat, which, though by no means his
+best, and stained with the sea water, were grasped with ecstasy,
+quarrelled over, and displayed in triumph.  The steward had secured a
+rope by which he likewise reached the shore, only to become the prey of
+the savages, who instantly made prize of his watch and purse, as well
+as of almost all his garments.  The five unfortunate survivors would
+fain have remained huddled together, but the natives pointing to some
+huts on the hillside, urged them thither by the language of shouts and
+blows.
+
+'Faith and I'm not an ox,' exclaimed Lanty, as if the fellow could have
+understood him, 'and is it to the shambles you're driving me?'
+
+'Best not resist!  There's nothing for it but to obey them,' said the
+steward, 'and at least there will be shelter for the child.'
+
+No objection was made to his lifting her in his arms, and he carried
+her, as the party, half-drowned, nearly starved and exhausted, stumbled
+on along the rocky paths which cut their feet cruelly, since their
+shoes had all been taken from them.  Lanty gave what help he could to
+the Abbe and Victorine, who were both in a miserable plight, but ere
+long he was obliged to take his turn in carrying Estelle, whose weight
+had become too much for the worn out Hebert.  He was alarmed to find,
+on transferring her, that her head sank on his shoulder as if in a
+sleep of exhaustion, which, however, shielded her from much terror.
+For, as they arrived at a cluster of five or six tents, built of clay
+and the branches of trees, out rushed a host of women, children, and
+large fierce dogs, all making as much noise as they were capable of.
+The dogs flew at the strange white forms, no doubt utterly new to them.
+Victorine was severely bitten, and Lanty, trying to rescue her, had his
+leg torn.
+
+These two were driven into one hut; Estelle, who was evidently
+considered as the greatest prize, was taken into another and rather
+better one, together with the steward and the Abbe.  The Moors, who had
+swum ashore, had probably told them that she was the Frankish Bey's
+daughter; for this, miserable place though it was, appeared to be the
+best hut in the hamlet, nor was she deprived of her clothes.  A sort of
+bournouse or haik, of coarse texture and very dirty, was given to each
+of the others, and some rye cakes baked in the ashes.  Poor little
+Estelle turned away her head at first, but Hebert, alarmed at her
+shivering in her wet clothes, contrived to make her swallow a little,
+and then took off the soaked dress, and wrapped her in the bournouse.
+She was by this time almost unconscious from weariness, and made no
+resistance to the unaccustomed hands, or the disgusting coarseness and
+uncleanness of her wrapper, but dropped asleep the moment he laid her
+down, and he applied himself to trying to dry her clothes at a little
+fire of sticks that had been lighted outside the open space, round
+which the huts stood.
+
+The Abbe too had fallen asleep, as Hebert managed to assure poor Lanty,
+who rushed out of the other tent, nearly naked, and bloodstained in
+many places, but more concerned at his separation from his foster-
+brother than at anything else that had befallen him.  Men, women,
+children, and dogs were all after him, supposing him to be trying to
+escape, and he was seized upon and dragged back by main force, but not
+before the steward had called out -
+
+'M. l'Abbe sleeps--sleeps sound--he is not hurt!  For Heaven's sake,
+Laurent, be quiet--do not enrage them!  It is the only hope for him, as
+for Mademoiselle and the rest of us.'
+
+Lanty, on hearing of the Abbe's safety, allowed himself to be taken
+back, making himself, however, a passive dead weight on his captor's
+hands.
+
+'Arrah,' he muttered to himself, 'if ye will have me, ye shall have the
+trouble of me, bad luck to you.  'Tis little like ye are to the
+barbarous people St. Paul was thrown with; but then what right have I
+to expect the treatment of a holy man, the like of him?  If so be, I
+can save that poor orphan that's left, and bring off Master Phelim
+safe, and save poor Victorine from being taken for some dirty
+spalpeen's wife, when he has half a dozen more to the fore--'tis little
+it matters what becomes of Lanty Callaghan; they might give him to
+their big brutes of dogs, and mighty lean meat they would find him!'
+
+So came down the first night upon the captives.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--CAPTIVITY
+
+
+
+'Hold fast thy hope and Heaven will not
+Forsake thee in thine hour.
+Good angels will be near thee,
+And evil ones will fear thee,
+And Faith will give thee power.'
+SOUTHEY.
+
+The whole northern coast of Africa is inhabited by a medley of tribes,
+all owning a kind of subjection to the Sultan, but more in the sense of
+Pope than of King.  The part of the coast where the tartane had been
+driven on the rocks was beneath Mount Araz, a spur of the Atlas, and
+was in the possession of the Arab tribe called Cabeleyze, which is said
+to mean 'the revolted.'  The revolt had been from the Algerine power,
+which had never been able to pursue them into the fastnesses of the
+mountains, and they remained a wild independent race, following all
+those Ishmaelite traditions and customs that are innate in the blood of
+the Arab.
+
+When Estelle awoke from her long sleep of exhaustion, she was conscious
+of a stifling atmosphere, and moreover of the crow of a cock in her
+immediate vicinity, then of a dog growling, and a lamb beginning to
+bleat.  She raised herself a little, and beheld, lying on the ground
+around her, dark heaps with human feet protruding from them.  These
+were interspersed with sheep, goats, dogs, and fowls, all seen by the
+yellow light of the rising sun which made its way in not only through
+the doorless aperture, but through the reeds and branches which formed
+the walls.
+
+Close as the air was, she felt the chill of the morning and shivered.
+At the same moment she perceived poor Maitre Hebert covering himself as
+best he could with a dirty brown garment, and bending over her with
+much solicitude, but making signs to make as little noise as possible,
+while he whispered, 'How goes it with Mademoiselle?'
+
+'Ah,' said Estelle, recollecting herself, 'we are shipwrecked.  We
+shall have to confess our faith!  Where are the rest?'
+
+'There is M. l'Abbe,' said Hebert, pointing to a white pair of the bare
+feet.  'Poor Laurent and Victorine have been carried elsewhere.'
+
+'And mamma?  And my brother?'
+
+'Ah!  Mademoiselle, give the good God thanks that he has spared them
+our trial.'
+
+'Mamma!  Ah, she was in the cabin when the water came in?  But my
+brother!  I had hold of his hand, he came out with me.  I saw M. Arture
+swim away with him.  Yes, Maitre Hebert, indeed I did.'
+
+Hebert had not the least hope that they could be saved, but he would
+not grieve the child by saying so, and his present object was to get
+her dressed before any one was awake to watch, and perhaps appropriate
+her upper garments.  He was a fatherly old man, and she let him help
+her with her fastenings, and comb out her hair with the tiny comb in
+her etui.  Indeed, friseurs were the rule in France, and she was not
+unused to male attendants at the toilette, so that she was not shocked
+at being left to his care.
+
+For the rest, the child had always dwelt in an imaginary world, a
+curious compound of the Lives of the Saints and of Telemaque.  Martyrs
+and heroes alike had been shipwrecked, taken captive, and tormented;
+and there was a certain sense of realised day-dream about her, as if
+she had become one of the number and must act up to her part.  She
+asked Hebert if there were a Sainte Estelle, what was the day of the
+month, and if she should be placed in the Calendar if she never
+complained, do what these barbarians might to her.  She hoped she
+should hold out, for she would like to be able to help all whom she
+loved, poor papa and all.  But it was hard that mamma, who was so good,
+could not be a martyr too; but she was a saint in Paradise all the
+same, and thus Estelle made her little prayer in hope.  There was no
+conceit or over confidence in the tone, though of course the poor child
+little knew what she was ready to accept; but it was a spark of the
+martyr's trust that gleamed in her eye, and gave her a sense of
+exaltation that took off the sharpest edge of grief and fear.
+
+By this time, however, the animals were stirring, and with them the
+human beings who had lain down in their clothes.  Peace was over; the
+Abbe awoke, and began to call for Laurent and his clothes and his
+beads; but this aroused the master of the house, who started up, and
+threatening with a huge stick, roared at him what must have been orders
+to be quiet.
+
+Estelle indignantly flew between and cried, 'You shall not hurt my
+uncle.'
+
+The commanding gesture spoke for itself; and, besides, poor Phelim
+cowered behind her with an air that caused a word and sign to pass
+round, which the captives found was equivalent to innocent or imbecile;
+and the Mohammedan respect and tenderness for the demented spared him
+all further violence or molestation, except that he was lost and
+miserable without the attentions of his foster-brother; and indeed the
+shocks he had undergone seemed to have mobbed him of much of the small
+degree of sense he had once possessed.
+
+Coming into the space before the doorway, Estelle found herself the
+object of universal gaze and astonishment, as her long fair hair
+gleamed in the sunshine, every one coming to touch it, and even pull it
+to see if it was real.  She was a good deal frightened, but too high-
+spirited to show it more than she could help, as the dark-skinned,
+bearded men crowded round with cries of wonder.  The other two
+prisoners likewise appeared:  Victorine looking wretchedly ill, and
+hardly able to hold up her head; Lanty creeping towards the Abbe, and
+trying to arrange his remnant of clothing.  There was a short respite,
+while the Arabs, all turning eastwards, chanted their morning devotions
+with a solemnity that struck their captives.  The scene was a fine one,
+if there had been any heart to admire.  The huts were placed on the
+verge of a fine forest of chestnut and cork trees--and beyond towered
+up mountain peaks in every variety of dazzling colour--red and purple
+beneath, glowing red and gold where the snowy peaks caught the morning
+sun, lately broken from behind them.  The slopes around were covered
+with rich grass, flourishing after the summer heats, and to which the
+herds were now betaking themselves, excepting such as were detained to
+be milked by the women, who came pouring out of some of the other huts
+in dark blue garments; and in front, still shadowed by the mountain,
+lay the bay, deep, beautiful, pellucid green near the land, and shut in
+by fantastic and picturesque rocks--some bare, some clothed with
+splendid foliage, winter though it was--while beyond lay the exquisite
+blue stretching to the horizon.  Little recked the poor prisoners of
+the scene so fair; they only saw the remnant of the wreck below, the
+sea that parted them from hope, the savage rocks behind, the barbarous
+people around, the squalor and dirt of the adowara, as the hamlet was
+called.
+
+Comparatively, the Moor who had swum ashore to reconnoitre seemed like
+a friend when he came forward and saluted Estelle and the Abbe
+respectfully.  Moreover the lingua Franca Lanty had picked up
+established a very imperfect double system of interpretation by the
+help of many gestures.  This was Lanty's explanation to the rest:  in
+French, of course, but, like all his speech, Irish-English in
+construction.
+
+'This Moor, Hassan, wants to stand our friend in his own fashion, but
+he says they care not the value of an empty mussel-shell for the
+French, and no more for the Dey of Algiers than I do for the Elector of
+Hanover.  He has told them that M. l'Abbe and Mademoiselle are brother
+and daughter to a great Bey--but it is little they care for that.  Holy
+Virgin, they took Mademoiselle for a boy!  That is why they are gazing
+at her so impudently.  Would that I could give them a taste of my cane!
+Do you see those broken walls, and a bit of a castle on yonder headland
+jutting out into the sea?  They are bidding Hassan say that the French
+built that, and garrisoned it with the help of the Dey; but there fell
+out a war, and these fellows, or their fathers, surprised it, sacked
+it, and carried off four hundred prisoners into slavery.  Holy Mother
+defend us!  Here are all the rogues coming to see what they will do
+with us!'
+
+For the open space in front of the huts, whence all the animals had now
+been driven, was becoming thronged with figures with the haik laid over
+their heads, spear or blunderbuss in hand, fine bearing, and sometimes
+truculent, though handsome, browse countenances.  They gazed at the
+captives, and uttered what sounded like loud hurrahs or shouts; but
+after listening to Hassan, Lanty turned round trembling.  'The
+miserables!  Some are for sacrificing us outright on the spot, but this
+decent man declares that he will make them sensible that their prophet
+was not out-and-out as bad as that.  Never you fear, Mademoiselle.'
+
+'I am not afraid,' said Estelle, drawing up her head.  'We shall be
+martyrs.'
+
+Lanty was engaged in listening to a moan from his foster-brother for
+food, and Hebert joined in observing that they might as well be
+sacrificed as starved to death; whereupon the Irishman's words and
+gesticulations induced the Moor to make representations which resulted
+in some dry pieces of samh cake, a few dates, and a gourd of water
+being brought by one of the women; a scanty amount for the number, even
+though poor Victorine was too ill to touch anything but the water;
+while the Abbe seemed unable to understand that the servants durst not
+demand anything better, and devoured her share and a quarter of Lanty's
+as well as his own.  Meantime the Cabeleyzes had all ranged themselves
+in rows, cross-legged on the ground, opposite to the five unfortunate
+captives, to sit in judgment on them.  As they kept together in one
+group, happily in the shade of a hut, Victorine, too faint and sick
+fully to know what was going on, lay with her head on the lap of her
+young mistress, who sat with her bright and strangely fearless eyes
+confronting the wild figures opposite.
+
+Her uncle, frightened, though not comprehending the extent of his
+danger, crouched behind Lanty, who with Hebert stood somewhat in
+advance, the would-be guardians of the more helpless ones.
+
+There was an immense amount of deafening shrieking and gesticulating
+among the Arabs.  Hassan was responding, and finally turned to Lanty,
+when the anxious watchers could perceive signs as if of paying down
+coin made interrogatively.  'Promise them anything, everything,' cried
+Hebert; 'M. le Comte would give his last sou--so would Madame la
+Marquise--to save Mademoiselle.'
+
+'I have told him so,' said Laurence presently; 'I bade him let them
+know it is little they can make of us, specially now they have stripped
+us as bare as themselves, the rascals! but that their fortunes would be
+made--and little they would know what to do with them--if they would
+only send M. l'Abbe and Mademoiselle to Algiers safe and sound.  There!
+he is trying to incense them.  Never fear, Master Phelim, dear, there
+never was a rogue yet, black or white, or the colour of poor Madame's
+frothed chocolate, who did not love gold better than blood, unless
+indeed 'twas for the sweet morsel of revenge; and these, for all their
+rolling eyes and screeching tongues, have not the ghost of a quarrel
+with us.'
+
+'My beads, my breviary,' sighed the Abbe.  'Get them for me, Lanty.'
+
+'I wish they would end it quickly,' said Estelle.  'My head aches so,
+and I want to be with mamma.  Poor Victorine! yours is worse,' she
+added, and soaked her handkerchief in the few drops of water left in
+the gourd to lay it on the maid's forehead.
+
+The howling and shrieking betokened consultation, but was suddenly
+interrupted by some half-grown lads, who came running in with their
+hands full of what Lanty recognised to his horror as garments worn by
+his mistress and fellow-servants, also a big kettle and a handspike.
+They pointed down to the sea, and with yells of haste and exultation
+all the wild conclave started up to snatch, handle, and examine, then
+began rushing headlong to the beach.  Hassan's explanations were
+scarcely needed to show that they were about to ransack the ship, and
+he evidently took credit to himself for having induced them to spare
+the prisoners in case their assistance should be requisite to gain full
+possession of the plunder.
+
+Estelle and Victorine were committed to the charge of a forbidding-
+looking old hag, the mother of the sheyk of the party; the Abbe was
+allowed to stray about as he pleased, but the two men were driven to
+the shore by the eloquence of the club.  Victorine revived enough for a
+burst of tears and a sobbing cry, 'Oh, they will be killed!  We shall
+never see them again!'
+
+'No,' said Estelle, with her quiet yet childlike resolution, 'they are
+not going to kill any of us yet.  They said so.  You are so tired, poor
+Victorine!  Now all the hubbub is over, suppose you lie still and
+sleep.  My uncle,' as he roamed round her, mourning for his rosary, 'I
+am afraid your beads are lost; but see here, these little round seeds,
+I can pierce them if you will gather some more for me, and make you
+another set.  See, these will be the Aves, and here are shells in the
+grass for the Paters.'
+
+The long fibre of grass served for the string, and the sight of the
+Giaour girl's employment brought round her all the female population
+who had not repaired to the coast.  Her first rosary was torn from her
+to adorn an almost naked baby; but the Abbe began to whimper, and to
+her surprise the mother restored it to him.  She then made signs that
+she would construct another necklace for the child, and she was
+rewarded by a gourd being brought to her full of milk, which she was
+able to share with her two companions, and which did something to
+revive poor Victorine.  Estelle was kept threading these necklaces and
+bracelets all the wakeful hours of the day--for every one fell asleep
+about noon--though still so jealous a watch was kept on her that she
+was hardly allowed to shift her position so as to get out of the sun,
+which even at that season was distressingly scorching in the middle of
+the day.
+
+Parties were continually coming up from the beach laden with spoils of
+all kinds from the wreck, Lanty, Hebert, and a couple of negroes being
+driven up repeatedly, so heavily burthened as to be almost bent double.
+All was thrown down in a heap at the other end of the adowara, and the
+old sheyk kept guard over it, allowing no one to touch it.  This went
+on till darkness was coming on, when, while the cattle were being
+collected for the night, the prisoners were allowed an interval, in
+which Hebert and Lanty told how the natives, swimming like ducks, had
+torn everything out of the wreck:  all the bales and boxes that poor
+Maitre Hebert had secured with so much care, and many of which he was
+now forced himself to open for the pleasure of these barbarians.
+
+That, however, was not the worst.  Hebert concealed from his little
+lady what Lanty did not spare Victorine.  'And there--enough to melt
+the heart of a stone--there lay on the beach poor Madame la Comtesse,
+and all the three.  Good was it for you, Victorine, my jewel, that you
+were not in the cabin with them.'
+
+'I know not,' said the dejected Victorine; 'they are better off than
+we?'
+
+'You would not say so, if you had seen what I have,' said Lanty,
+shuddering.  'The dogs!--they cut off Madame's poor white fingers to
+get at her rings, and not with knives either, lest her blessed flesh
+should defile them, they said, and her poor face was an angel's all the
+time.  Nay, nor that was not the worst.  The villainous boys, what must
+they do but pelt the poor swollen bodies with stones!  Ay, well you may
+scream, Victorine.  We went down on our knees, Maitre Hebert and I, to
+pray they might let us give them burial, but they mocked us, and bade
+Hassan say they never bury dogs.  I went round the steeper path, for
+all the load at my back, or I should have been flying at the throats of
+the cowardly vultures, and then what would have become of M. l'Abbe?'
+
+Victorine trembled and wept bitterly for her companions, and then asked
+if Lanty had seen the corpse of the little Chevalier.
+
+'Not a sight of him or M.  Arthur either,' returned Lanty; 'only the
+ugly face of the old Turk captain and another of his crew, and them
+they buried decently, being Moslem hounds like themselves; while my
+poor lady that is a saint in heaven--' and he, too, shed tears of hot
+grief and indignation, recovering enough to warn Victorine by no means
+to let the poor young girl know of this additional horror.
+
+There was little opportunity, for they had been appropriated by
+different masters:  Estelle, the Abbe, and Hebert to the sheyk, or
+headman of the clan; and Lanty and Victorine to a big, strong, fierce-
+looking fellow, of inferior degree but greater might.
+
+This time Estelle was to be kept for the night among the sheyk's women,
+who, though too unsophisticated to veil their faces, had a part of the
+hut closed off with a screen of reeds, but quite as bare as the
+outside.  Hebert, who could not endure to think of her sleeping on the
+ground, and saw a large heap of grass or straw provided for a little
+brown cow, endeavoured to take an armful for her.  Unluckily it
+belonged to Lanty's master, Eyoub, who instantly flew at him in a fury,
+dragged him to a log of wood, caught up an axe, and had not Estelle's
+screams brought up the sheyk, with Hassan and one or two other men, the
+poor Maitre d'Hotel's head would have been off.  There was a sharp
+altercation between the sheyk and Eyoub, while Estelle held the
+faithful servant's hand, saying, 'You did it for me!  Oh, Hebert, do
+not make them angry again.  It would be beautiful to die for one's
+faith, but not for a handful of hay.'
+
+'Ah! my dear demoiselle, what would my poor ladies say to see you
+sleeping on the bare ground in a filthy hut?'
+
+'I slept well last night,' returned Estelle; 'indeed, I do not mind!
+It is only the more like the dungeon at Lyon, you know!  And I pray
+you, Hebert, do not get yourself killed for nothing too soon, or else
+we shall not all stand out and confess together, like St. Blandina and
+St. Ponticus and St Epagathius.'
+
+'Alas, the dear child!  The long names run off her tongue as glibly as
+ever,' sighed Hebert, who, though determined not to forsake his faith,
+by no means partook her enthusiasm for martyrdom.  Hassan, however,
+having explained what the purpose had been, Hebert was pardoned, though
+the sheyk scornfully observed that what was good enough for the
+daughters of a Hadji was good enough for the unclean child of the
+Frankish infidels.
+
+The hay might perhaps have spared a little stiffness, but it would not
+have ameliorated the chief annoyances--the closeness, the dirt, and the
+vermin.  It was well that it was winter, or the first of these would
+have been far worse, and, fortunately for Estelle, she was one of those
+whom suffocating air rather lulls than rouses.
+
+Eyoub's hovel did not rejoice in the refinement of a partition, but his
+family, together with their animals, lay on the rocky floor as best
+they might; and Victorine's fever came on again, so that she lay in
+great misery, greeted by a growl from a great white dog whenever she
+tried to relieve her restless aching limbs by the slightest movement,
+or to reach one of the gourds of water laid near the sleepers, like
+Saul's cruse at his pillow.
+
+Towards morning, however, Lanty, who had been sitting with his back
+against the wall, awoke from the sleep well earned by acting as a beast
+of burthen.  The dog growled a little, but Lanty--though his leg still
+showed its teeth-marks--had made friends with it, and his hand on its
+head quieted it directly, so that he was able cautiously to hand a
+gourd to Victorine.  The Arabs were heavy sleepers, and the two were
+able to talk under their breath; as, in reply to a kind word from
+Lanty, poor Victorine moaned her envy of the fate of Rosette and
+Babette; and he, with something of their little mistress's spirit,
+declared that he had no doubt but that 'one way or the other they
+should be out of it:  either get safe home, or be blessed martyrs,
+without even a taste of purgatory.'
+
+'Ah! but there's worse for me,' sighed Victorine.  'This demon brought
+another to stare in my face--I know he wants to make me his wife!  Kill
+me first, Laurent.'
+
+'It is I that would rather espouse you, my jewel,' returned a tender
+whisper.
+
+'How can you talk of such things at such a moment?'
+
+''Tis a pity M. l'Abbe is not a priest,' sighed Lanty.  'But, you know,
+Victorine, who is the boy you always meant to take.'
+
+'You need not be so sure of that,' she said, the coy coquetry not quite
+extinct.
+
+'Come, as you said, it is no time for fooling.  Give me your word and
+troth to be my wife so soon as we have the good luck to come by a
+Christian priest by our Lady's help, and I'll outface them all--were it
+Mohammed the Prophet himself, that you are my espoused and betrothed,
+and woe to him that puts a finger on you.'
+
+'You would only get yourself killed.'
+
+'And would not I be proud to be killed for your sake?  Besides, I'll
+show them cause not to kill me if I have the chance.  Trust me,
+Victorine, my darling--it is but a chance among these murdering
+villains, but it is the only one; and, sure, if you pretended to turn
+the back of your hand to me when there were plenty of Christian men to
+compliment you, yet you would rather have poor Lanty than a thundering
+rogue of a pagan Mohammedan.'
+
+'I hope I shall die,' sighed poor Victorine faintly.  'It will only be
+your death!'
+
+'That is my affair,' responded Lanty.  'Come, here's daylight coming
+in; reach me your hand before this canaille wakes, and here's this good
+beast of a dog, and yonder grave old goat with a face like Pere
+Michel's for our witnesses--and by good luck, here's a bit of gilt wire
+off my shoulder-knot that I've made into a couple of rings while I've
+been speaking.'
+
+The strange betrothal had barely taken place before there was a stir,
+and what was no doubt a yelling imprecation on the 'dog Giaours' for
+the noise they made.
+
+The morning began as before, with the exception that Estelle had
+established a certain understanding with a little chocolate-coloured
+cupid of a boy of the size of her brother, and his lesser sister, by
+letting them stroke her hair, and showing them the mysteries of cat's
+cradle.  They shared their gourd of goat's-milk with her, but would not
+let her give any to her companions.  However, the Abbe had only to hold
+out his hand to be fed, and the others were far too anxious to care
+much about their food.
+
+A much larger number of Cabeleyzes came streaming into the forum of the
+adowara, and the prisoners were all again placed in a row, while the
+new-comers passed before them, staring hard, and manifestly making
+personal remarks which perhaps it was well that they did not
+understand.  The sheyk and Eyoub evidently regarded them as private
+property, stood in front, and permitted nobody to handle them, which
+was so far a comfort.
+
+Then followed a sort of council, with much gesticulation, in which
+Hassan took his share.  Then, followed by the sheyk, Eyoub, and some
+other headmen, he advanced, and demanded that the captives should
+become true believers.  This was eked out with gestures betokening that
+thus they would be free, in that case; while, if they refused, the
+sword and the smouldering flame were pointed to, while the whole host
+loudly shouted 'Islam!'
+
+Victorine trembled, sobbed, tried to hide herself; but Estelle stood
+up, her young face lighted up, her dark eyes gleaming, as if she were
+realising a daydream, as she shook her head, cried out to Lanty, 'Tell
+him, No--never!' and held to her breast a little cross of sticks that
+she had been forming to complete her uncle's rosary.  Her gesture was
+understood.  A man better clad than the rest, with a turban and a broad
+crimson sash, rushed up to her, seized her by the hair, and waved his
+scimitar over her head.  The child felt herself close to her mother.
+She looked up in his face with radiant eyes and a smile on her lips.
+It absolutely daunted the fellow:  his arm dropped, and he gazed at her
+like some supernatural creature; and the sheyk, enraged at the
+interference with his property, darted forth to defend it, and there
+was a general wrangling.
+
+Seconded by their interpreter, Hassan, who knew that the Koran did not
+prescribe the destruction of Christians, Hebert and Lanty endeavoured
+to show that their conversion was out of the question, and that their
+slaughter would only be the loss of an exceedingly valuable ransom,
+which would be paid if they were handed over safe and sound and in good
+condition.
+
+There was no knowing what was the effect of this, for the council again
+ended in a rush to secure the remaining pillage of the wreck.  Hebert
+and Lanty dreaded what they might see, but to their great relief those
+poor remains had disappeared.  They shuddered as they remembered the
+hyenas' laughs and the jackals' howls they had heard at nightfall; but
+though they hoped that the sea had been merciful, they could even have
+been grateful to the animals that had spared them the sight of
+conscious insults.
+
+The wreck was finally cleared, and among the fragments were found
+several portions of books.  These the Arabs disregarded, being too
+ignorant even to read their own Koran, and yet aware of the Mohammedan
+scruple which forbids the destruction of any scrap of paper lest it
+should bear the name of Allah.  Lanty secured the greater part of the
+Abbe's breviary, and a good many pages of Estelle's beloved Telemaque;
+while the steward gained possession of his writing case, and was
+permitted to retain it when the Cabeleyzes, glutted with plunder, had
+ascertained that it contained nothing of value to them.
+
+After everything had been dragged up to the adowara, there ensued a
+sort of auction or division of the plunder.  Poor Maitre Hebert was
+doomed to see the boxes and bales he had so diligently watched broken
+open by these barbarians,--nay, he had to assist in their own
+dissection when the secrets were too much for the Arabs.  There was the
+King of Spain's portrait rent from its costly setting and stamped upon
+as an idolatrous image.  The miniature of the Count, worn by the poor
+lady, had previously shared the same fate, but that happily was out of
+sight and knowledge.  Here was the splendid plate, presented by crowned
+heads, howled over by savages ignorant of its use.  The silver they
+seemed to value; but there were three precious gold cups which the salt
+water had discoloured, so that they were taken for copper and sold for
+a very small price to a Jew, who somehow was attracted to the scene,
+'like a raven to the slaughter,' said Lanty.
+
+This man likewise secured some of the poor lady's store of rich
+dresses, but a good many more were appropriated to make sashes for the
+men, and the smaller articles, including stockings, were wound turban
+fashion round the children's heads.
+
+Lanty could not help observing, 'And if the saints are merciful to us,
+and get us out of this, we shall have stories to tell that will last
+our lives!' as he watched the solemn old chief smelling to the
+perfumes, swallowing the rouge as splendid medicine, and finally
+fingering a snuff-box, while half a dozen more crowded round to assist
+in the opening, and in another moment sneezing, weeping, tingling,
+dancing frantically about, vituperating the Christian's magic.
+
+This gave Lanty an idea.  A little round box lay near, which, as he
+remembered, contained a Jack-in-the-box, or Polichinelle, which the
+poor little Chevalier had bought at the fair at Tarascon.  This he
+contrived to secrete and hand to Victorine.  'Keep the secret,' he
+said, 'and you will find your best guardian in that bit of a box.'  And
+when that very evening an Arab showed some intentions of adding her to
+his harem, Victorine bethought herself of the box, and unhooked in
+desperation.  Up sprang Punch, long-nosed and fur-capped, right in the
+bearded face.
+
+Back the man almost fell; 'Shaitan, Shaitan!' was the cry, as the
+inhabitants tumbled pell-mell out of the hovel, and Victorine and Punch
+remained masters of the situation.
+
+She heard Lanty haranguing in broken Arabic and lingua Franca, and
+presently he came in, shaking with suppressed laughter.  'If ever we
+get home,' said he, 'we'll make a pilgrimage to Tarascon!  Blessings on
+good St. Martha that put that sweet little imp in my way!  The rogues
+think he is the very genie that the fisherman let out of the bottle in
+Mademoiselle's book of the Thousand and One Nights, and thought to see
+him towering over the whole place.  And a fine figure he would be with
+his hook nose and long beard.  They sent me to beg you fairly to put up
+your little Shaitan again.  I told them that Shaitan, as they call him,
+is always in it when there's meddling between an espoused pair--which
+is as true as though the Holy Father at Rome had said it--and as long
+as they were civil, Shaitan would rest; but if they durst molest you,
+there was no saying where he would be, if once you had to let him out!
+To think of the virtue of that ugly face and bit of a coil of wire!'
+
+Meantime Hebert, having ascertained that both the Jew and Hassan were
+going away, the one to Constantina, the other to Algiers, wrote, and so
+did Estelle, to the Consul at Algiers, explaining their position and
+entreating to be ransomed.  Though only nine years old, Estelle could
+write a very fair letter, and the amazement of the Arabs was unbounded
+that any female creature should wield a pen.  Marabouts and merchants
+were known to read the Koran, but if one of the goats had begun to
+write, their wonder could hardly have been greater; and such crowds
+came to witness the extraordinary operation that she could scarcely
+breathe or see.
+
+It seemed to establish her in their estimation as a sort of
+supernatural being, for she was always treated with more consideration
+than the rest of the captives, never deprived of the clothes she wore,
+and allowed to appropriate a few of the toilette necessaries that were
+quite incomprehensible to those around her.
+
+She learnt the names for bread, chestnuts, dates, milk, and water, and
+these were never denied to her; and her little ingenuities in nursery
+games won the goodwill of the women and children around her, though
+others used to come and make ugly faces at her, and cry out at her as
+an unclean thing.  The Abbe was allowed to wander about at will, and
+keep his Hours, with Estelle to make the responses, and sometimes
+Hebert.  He was the only one that might visit the other two captives;
+Lanty was kept hard at work over the crop of chestnuts that the clan
+had come down from their mountains to gather in; and poor Victorine,
+who was consumed by a low fever, and almost too weak to move, lay all
+day in the dreary and dirty hut, expecting, but dreading death.
+
+Some days later there was great excitement, shouting, and rage.  It
+proved that the Bey of Constantina had sent to demand the party,
+threatening to send an armed force to compel their surrender; but,
+alas! the hope of a return to comparative civilisation was instantly
+quashed, for the sheyk showed himself furious.  He and Eyoub stood
+brandishing their scimitars, and with eyes flashing like a panther's in
+the dark, declaring that they were free, no subjects of the Dey nor the
+Bey either; and that they would shed the blood of every one of the
+captives rather than yield them to the dogs and sons of dogs at
+Constantina.
+
+This embassy only increased the jealousy with which the prisoners were
+guarded.  None of them were allowed to stir without a man with a
+halbert, and they had the greatest difficulty in entrusting a third
+letter to the Moor in command of the party.  Indeed, it was only
+managed by Estelle's coaxing of the little Abou Daoud, who was growing
+devoted to her, and would do anything for the reward of hearing her
+sing life Malbrook s'en va-t'-n guerre.
+
+It might have been in consequence of this threat of the Bey, much as
+they affected to despise it, that the Cabeleyzes prepared to return to
+the heights of Mount Araz, whence they had only descended during the
+autumn to find fresh pasture for their cattle, and to collect dates and
+chestnuts from the forest.
+
+'Alas!' said Hubert, 'this is worse than ever.  As long as we were near
+the sea, I had hope, but now all trace of us will be lost, even if the
+Consul should send after us.'
+
+'Never fear, Maitre Hubert,' said Estelle; 'you know Telemaque was a
+prisoner and tamed the wild peasants in Egypt.'
+
+'Ah! the poor demoiselle, she always seems as if she were acting a
+comedy.'
+
+This was happily true.  Estelle seemed to be in a curious manner borne
+through the dangers and discomforts of her surroundings by a strange
+dreamy sense of living up to her part, sometimes as a possible martyr,
+sometimes as a figure in the mythological or Arcadian romance that had
+filtered into her nursery.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--A MOORISH VILLAGE
+
+
+
+'Our laws and our worship on thee thou shalt take,
+And this shalt thou first do for Zulema's sake.'
+SCOTT.
+
+When Arthur Hope dashed back from the party on the prow of the wrecked
+tartane in search of little Ulysse, he succeeded in grasping the child,
+but at the same moment a huge breaker washed him off the slipperily-
+sloping deck, and after a scarce conscious struggle he found himself,
+still retaining his clutch of the boy, in the trough between it and
+another.  He was happily an expert swimmer, and holding the little
+fellow's clothes in his teeth, he was able to avoid the dash, and to
+rise on another wave.  Then he perceived that he was no longer near the
+vessel, but had been carried out to some little distance, and his
+efforts only succeeded in keeping afloat, not in approaching the shore.
+Happily a plank drifted so near him that he was able to seize it and
+throw himself across it, thus obtaining some support, and being able to
+raise the child farther above the water.
+
+At the same time he became convinced that a strong current, probably
+from a river or stream, was carrying him out to sea, away from the bay.
+He saw the black heads of two or three of the Moorish crew likewise
+floating on spars, and yielding themselves to the stream, and this made
+him better satisfied to follow their example.  It was a sort of rest,
+and gave him time to recover from the first exhaustion to convince
+himself that the little boy was not dead, and to lash him to the plank
+with a handkerchief.
+
+By and by--he knew not how soon--calls and shouts passed between the
+Moors; only two seemed to survive, and they no longer obeyed the
+direction of the current, but turned resolutely towards the land, where
+Arthur dimly saw a green valley opening towards the sea.  This was a
+much severer effort, but by this time immediate self-preservation had
+become the only thought, and happily both wind and the very slight tide
+were favourable, so that, just as the sun sank beneath the western
+waves, Arthur felt foothold on a sloping beach of white sand, even as
+his powers became exhausted.  He struggled up out of reach of the sea,
+and then sank down, exhausted and unconscious.
+
+His first impression was of cries and shrieks round him, as he gasped
+and panted, then saw as in a dream forms flitting round him, and then--
+feeling for the child and missing him--he raised himself in
+consternation, and the movement was greeted by fresh unintelligible
+exclamations, while a not unkindly hand lifted him up.  It belonged to
+a man in a sort of loose white garment and drawers, with a thin dark-
+bearded face; and Arthur, recollecting that the Spanish word nino
+passed current for child in lingua Franca, uttered it with an accent of
+despairing anxiety.  He was answered with a volley of words that he
+only understood to be in a consoling tone, and the speaker pointed
+inland.  Various persons, among whom Arthur saw his recent shipmates,
+seemed to be going in that direction, and he obeyed his guide, though
+scarcely able to move from exhaustion and cold, the garments he had
+retained clinging about him.  Some one, however, ran down towards him
+with a vessel containing a draught of sour milk.  This revived him
+enough to see clearly and follow his guides.  After walking a distance,
+which appeared to him most laborious, he found himself entering a sort
+of village, and was ushered through a courtyard into a kind of room.
+In the centre a fire was burning; several figures were busy round it,
+and in another moment he perceived that they were rubbing, chafing, and
+otherwise restoring his little companion.
+
+Indeed Ulysse had just recovered enough to be terribly frightened, and
+as his friend's voice answered his screams, he sprang from the kind
+brown hands, and, darting on Arthur, clung to him with face hidden on
+his shoulder.  The women who had been attending to him fell back as the
+white stranger entered, and almost instantly dry clothes were brought,
+and while Arthur was warming himself and putting them on, a little
+table about a foot high was set, the contents of a cauldron of a kind
+of soup which had been suspended over the fire were poured into a large
+round green crock, and in which all were expected to dip their spoons
+and fingers.  Little Ulysse was exceedingly amazed, and observed that
+ces gens were not bien eleves to eat out of the dish; but he was too
+hungry to make any objection to being fed with the wooden spoon that
+had been handed to Arthur; and when the warm soup, and the meat
+floating in it, had refreshed them, signs were made to them to lie down
+on a mat within an open door, and both were worn out enough to sleep
+soundly.
+
+It was daylight when Arthur was awakened by poor little Ulysse sitting
+up and crying out for his bonne, his mother, and sister, 'Oh! take me
+to them,' he cried; 'I do not like this dark place.'
+
+For dark the room was, being windowless, though the golden sunlight
+could be seen beyond the open doorway, which was under a sort of
+cloister or verandah overhung by some climbing plant.  Arthur,
+collecting himself, reminded the child how the waves had borne them
+away from the rest, with earnest soothing promises of care, and
+endeavouring to get back to the rest.  'Say your prayers that God will
+take care of you and bring you back to your sister,' Arthur added, for
+he did not think it possible that the child's mother should have been
+saved from the waves; and his heart throbbed at thoughts of his promise
+to the poor lady.
+
+'But I want my bonne,' sighed Ulysse; 'I want my clothes.  This is an
+ugly robe de nuit, and there is no bed.'
+
+'Perhaps we can find your clothes,' said Arthur.  'They were too wet to
+be kept on last night.'
+
+So they emerged into the court, which had a kind of farmyard
+appearance; women with rows of coins hanging over their brows were
+milking cows and goats, and there was a continuous confusion of sound
+of their voices, and the lowing and bleating of cattle.  At the
+appearance of Arthur and the boy, there was a general shout, and people
+seemed to throng in to gaze at them, the men handsome, stately, and
+bearded, with white full drawers, and a bournouse laid so as first to
+form a flat hood over the head, and then belted in at the waist, with a
+more or less handsome sash, into which were stuck a spoon and knife,
+and in some cases one or two pistols.  They did not seem ill-disposed,
+though their language was perfectly incomprehensible.  Ulysse's clothes
+were lying dried by the hearth and no objection was made to his
+resuming them.  Arthur made gestures of washing or bathing, and was
+conducted outside the court, to a little stream of pure water
+descending rapidly to the sea.  It was so cold that Ulysse screamed at
+the touch, as Arthur, with more spectators than he could have desired,
+did his best to perform their toilettes.  He had divested himself of
+most of his own garments for the convenience of swimming, but his
+pockets were left and a comb in them; and though poor Mademoiselle
+Julienne would have been shocked at the result of his efforts, and the
+little silken laced suit was sadly tarnished with sea water, Ulysse
+became such an astonishing sight that the children danced round him,
+the women screamed with wonder, and the men said 'Mashallah!'  The
+young Scotsman's height was perhaps equally amazing, for he saw them
+pointing up to his head as if measuring his stature.
+
+He saw that he was in a village of low houses, with walls of unhewn
+stone, enclosing yards, and set in the midst of fruit-trees and
+gardens.  Though so far on in the autumn there was a rich luxuriant
+appearance; roots and fruits, corn and flax, were laid out to dry, and
+girls and boys were driving the cattle out to pasture.  He could not
+doubt that he had landed among a settled and not utterly uncivilised
+people, but he was too spent and weary to exert himself, or even to
+care for much beyond present safety; and had no sooner returned to his
+former quarters, and shared with Ulysse a bowl of curds, than they both
+feel asleep again in the shade of the gourd plant trained on a
+trellised roof over the wall.
+
+When he next awoke, Ulysse was very happily at play with some little
+brown children, as if the sports of childhood defied the curse of
+Babel, and a sailor from the tartane was being greeted by the master of
+the house.  Arthur hoped that some communication would now be possible,
+but, unfortunately, the man knew very little of the lingua Franca of
+the Mediterranean, and Arthur knew still less.  However, he made out
+that he was the only one of the shipwrecked crew who had managed to
+reach the land, and that this was a village of Moors--settled
+agricultural Moors, not Arabs, good Moslems--who would do him no harm.
+This, and he pointed to a fine-looking elderly man, was the sheyk of
+the village, Abou Ben Zegri, and if the young Giaours would conform to
+the true faith all would be salem with them.  Arthur shook his head,
+and tried by word and sign to indicate his anxiety for the rest of his
+companions.  The sailor threw up his hands, and pointed towards the
+sea, to show that he believed them to be all lost; but Arthur insisted
+that five--marking them off on his fingers--were on gebal, a rock, and
+emphatically indicated his desire of reaching them.  The Moor returned
+the word 'Cabeleyzes,' with gestures signifying throat-cutting and
+slavery, also that these present hosts regarded them as banditti.  How
+far off they were it was not possible to make out, for of course
+Arthur's own sensations were no guide; but he knew that the wreck had
+taken place early in the afternoon, and that he had come on shore in
+the dusk, which was then at about five o'clock.  There was certainly a
+promontory, made by the ridge of a hill, and also a river between him
+and any survivors there might be.
+
+This was all that he could gather, and he was not sure of even thus
+much, but he was still too much wearied and battered for any exertion
+of thought or even anxiety.  Three days' tempest in a cockle-shell of a
+ship, and then three hours' tossing on a plank, had left him little but
+the desire of repose, and the Moors were merciful and let him alone.
+It was a beautiful place--that he already knew.  A Scot, and used to
+the sea-coast, his eye felt at home as it ranged to the grand heights
+in the dim distance, with winter caps of snow, and shaded in the most
+gorgeous tints of colouring forests beneath, slopes covered with the
+exquisite green of young wheat.  Autumn though it was, the orange-
+trees, laden with fruit, the cork-trees, ilexes, and fan-palms, gave
+plenty of greenery, shading the gardens with prickly pear hedges; and
+though many of the fruit-trees had lost their leaves, fig, peach, and
+olive, and mulberry, caper plants, vines with foliage of every tint of
+red and purple, which were trained over the trellised courts of the
+houses, made everything have a look of rural plenty and peace, most
+unlike all that Arthur had ever heard or imagined of the Moors, who, as
+he owned to himself, were certainly not all savage pirates and slave-
+drivers.  The whole within was surrounded by a stone wall, with a deep
+horse-shoe-arched gateway, the fields and pastures lying beyond with
+some more slightly-walled enclosures meant for the protection of the
+flocks and herds at night.
+
+He saw various arts going on.  One man was working in iron over a
+little charcoal fire, with a boy to blow up his bellows, and several
+more were busied over some pottery, while the women alternated their
+grinding between two mill stones, and other domestic cares, with
+spinning, weaving, and beautiful embroidery.  To Arthur, who looked on,
+with no one to speak to except little Ulysse, it was strangely like
+seeing the life of the Israelites in the Old Testament when they dwelt
+under their own vines and fig-trees--like reading a chapter in the
+Bible, as he said to himself, as again and again he saw some allusion
+to Eastern customs illustrated.  He was still more struck--when, after
+the various herds of kine, sheep, and goats, with one camel, several
+asses, and a few slender-limbed Barbary horses had been driven in for
+the night--by the sight of the population, as the sun sank behind the
+mountains, all suspending whatever they were about, spreading their
+prayer carpets, turning eastwards, performing their ablutions, and
+uttering their brief prayer with one voice so devoutly that he was
+almost struck with awe.
+
+'Are they saying their prayers?' whispered Ulysse, startled by the
+instant change in his play-fellows, and as Arthur acquiesced, 'Then
+they are good.'
+
+'If it were the true faith,' said Arthur, thinking of the wide
+difference between this little fellow and Estelle; but though not two
+years younger, Ulysse was far more childish than his sister, and when
+she was no longer present to lead him with her enthusiasm, sank at once
+to his own level.  He opened wide his eyes at Arthur's reply, and said,
+'I do not see their idols.'
+
+'They have none,' said Arthur, who could not help thinking that Ulysse
+might look nearer home for idols--but chiefly concerned at the moment
+to keep the child quiet, lest he should bring danger on them by
+interruption.
+
+They were sitting in the embowered porch of the sheyk's court when, a
+few seconds after the villagers had risen up from their prayer, they
+saw a figure enter at the village gateway, and the sheyk rise and go
+forward.  There were low bending in salutation, hands placed on the
+breast, then kisses exchanged, after which the Sheyk Abou Ben Zegri
+went out with the stranger, and great excitement and pleasure seemed to
+prevail among the villagers, especially the women.  Arthur heard the
+word 'Yusuf' often repeated, and by the time darkness had fallen on the
+village, the sheyk ushered the guest into his court, bringing with him
+a donkey with some especially precious load--which was removed; after
+which the supper was served as before in the large low apartment, with
+a handsomely tiled floor, and an opening in the roof for the issue of
+the smoke from the fire, which became agreeable in the evening at this
+season.  Before supper, however, the stranger's feet and hands were
+washed by a black slave in Eastern fashion; and then all, as before,
+sat on mats or cushions round the central bowl, each being furnished
+with a spoon and thin flat soft piece of bread to dip into the mess of
+stewed kid, flakes of which might be extracted with the fingers.
+
+The women, who had fastened a piece of linen across their faces, ran
+about and waited on the guests, who included three or four of the
+principal men of the village, as well as the stranger, who, as Arthur
+observed, was not of the uniform brown of the rest, but had some colour
+in his cheeks, light eyes, and a ruddy beard, and also was of a larger
+frame than these Moors, who, though graceful, lithe, and exceedingly
+stately and dignified, hardly reached above young Hope's own shoulder.
+Conversation was going on all the time, and Arthur soon perceived that
+he was the subject of it.  As soon as the meal was over, the new-comer
+addressed him, to his great joy, in French.  It was the worst French
+imaginable--perhaps more correctly lingua Franca, with a French instead
+of an Arabic foundation, but it was more comprehensible than that of
+the Moorish sailor, and bore some relation to a civilised language;
+besides which there was something indescribably familiar in the tone of
+voice, although Arthur's good French often missed of being
+comprehended.
+
+'Son of a great man?  Ambassador, French!'  The greatness seemed
+impressed, but whether ambassador was understood was another thing,
+though it was accepted as relating to the boy.
+
+'Secretary to the Ambassador' seemed to be an equal problem.  The man
+shook his head, but he took in better the story of the wreck, though,
+like the sailor, he shook his head over the chance of there being any
+survivors, and utterly negatived the idea of joining them.  The great
+point that Arthur tried to convey was that there would be a very
+considerable ransom if the child could be conveyed to Algiers, and he
+endeavoured to persuade the stranger, who was evidently a sort of
+travelling merchant, and, as he began to suspect, a renegade, to convey
+them thither; but he only got shakes of the head as answers, and
+something to the effect that they were a good deal out of the Dey's
+reach in those parts, together with what he feared was an intimation
+that they were altogether in the power of Sheyk Abou Ben Zegri.
+
+They were interrupted by a servant of the merchant, who came to bring
+him some message as well as a pipe and tobacco.  The pipe was carried
+by a negro boy, at sight of whom Ulysse gave a cry of ecstasy, 'Juba!
+Juba!  Grandmother's Juba!  Why do not you speak to me?' as the little
+black, no bigger than Ulysse himself, grinned with all his white teeth,
+quite uncomprehending.
+
+'Ah! my poor laddie,' exclaimed Arthur in his native tongue, which he
+often used with the boy, 'it is only another negro.  You are far enough
+from home.'
+
+The words had an astonishing effect on the merchant.  He turned round
+with the exclamation, 'Ye'll be frae Scotland!'
+
+'And so are you!' cried Arthur, holding out his hand.
+
+'Tak tent, tak tent,' said the merchant hastily, yet with a certain
+hesitation, as though speaking a long unfamiliar tongue.  'The loons
+might jalouse our being overfriendly thegither.'
+
+Then he returned to the sheyk, to whom he seemed to be making
+explanations, and presenting some of his tobacco, which probably was of
+a superior quality in preparation to what was grown in the village.
+They solemnly smoked together and conversed, while Arthur watched them
+anxiously, relieved that he had found an interpreter, but very doubtful
+whether a renegade could be a friend, even though he were indeed a
+fellow-countryman.
+
+It was not till several pipes had been consumed, and the village
+worthies had, with considerable ceremony, taken leave, that the
+merchant again spoke to Arthur.  'I'll see ye the morn; I hae tell'd
+the sheyk we are frae the same parts.  Maybe I can serve you, if ye ken
+what's for your guid, but I canna say mair the noo.'
+
+The sheyk escorted him out of the court, for he slept in one of the two
+striped horse-hair tents, which had been spread within the enclosures
+belonging to the village, around which were tethered the mules and
+asses that carried his wares.  Arthur meanwhile arranged his little
+charge for the night.
+
+He felt that among these enemies to their faith he must do what was in
+his power to keep up that of the child, and not allow his prayers to be
+neglected; but not being able to repeat the Latin forms, and thinking
+them unprofitable to the boy himself, he prompted the saying of the
+Creed and Lord's Prayer in English, and caused them to be repeated
+after him, though very sleepily and imperfectly.
+
+All the men of the establishment seemed to take their night's rest on a
+mat, wrapped in a bournouse, wherever they chanced to find themselves,
+provided it was under shelter; the women in some penetralia beyond a
+doorway, though they were not otherwise secluded, and only partially
+veiled their faces at sight of a stranger.  Arthur had by this time
+made out that the sheyk, who was a very handsome man over middle-age,
+seemed to have two wives; one probably of his own age, and though
+withered up into a brown old mummy, evidently the ruler at home,
+wearing the most ornaments, and issuing her orders in a shrill, cracked
+tone.  There was a much younger and handsome one, the mother apparently
+of two or three little girls from ten or twelve years old to five, and
+there was a mere girl, with beautiful melancholy gazelle-like eyes, and
+a baby in her arms.  She wore no ornaments, but did not seem to be
+classed with the slaves who ran about at the commands of the elder
+dame.
+
+However, his own position was a matter of much more anxious care,
+although he had more hope of discovering what it really was.
+
+He had, however, to be patient.  The sunrise orisons were no sooner
+paid than there was a continual resort to the tent of the merchant, who
+was found sitting there calmly smoking his long pipe, and ready to
+offer the like, also a cup of coffee, to all who came to traffic with
+him.  He seemed to have a miscellaneous stock of coffee, tobacco,
+pipes, preparations of sugar, ornaments in gold and silver, jewellery,
+charms, pistols, and a host of other articles in stock, and to be ready
+to purchase or barter these for the wax, embroidered handkerchiefs,
+yarn, and other productions and manufactures of the place.  Not a
+single purchase could be made on either side without a tremendous
+haggling, shouting, and gesticulating, as if the parties were on the
+verge of coming to blows; whereas all was in good fellowship, and a
+pleasing excitement and diversion where time was of no value to
+anybody.  Arthur began to despair of ever gaining attention.  He was
+allowed to wander about as he pleased within the village gates, and
+Ulysse was apparently quite happy with the little children, who were
+beautiful and active, although kept dirty and ragged as a protection
+from the evil eye.
+
+Somehow the engrossing occupation of every one, especially of the only
+two creatures with whom he could converse, made Arthur more desolate
+than ever.  He lay down under an ilex, and his heart ached with a sick
+longing he had not experienced since he had been with the Nithsdales,
+for his mother and his home--the tall narrow-gabled house that had
+sprung up close to the grim old peel tower, the smell of the sea, the
+tinkling of the burn.  He fell asleep in the heat of the day, and it
+was to him as if he were once more sitting by the old shepherd on the
+braeside, hearing him tell the old tales of Johnnie Armstrong or Willie
+o' the wudspurs.
+
+Actually a Scottish voice was in his ears, as he looked up and saw the
+turbaned head of Yusuf the merchant bending over him, and saying--'Wake
+up, my bonny laddie; we can hae our crack in peace while these folks
+are taking their noonday sleep.  Awed, and where are ye frae, and how
+do you ca' yersel'?'
+
+'I am from Berwickshire,' responded the youth, and as the man started--
+'My name is Arthur Maxwell Hope of Burnside.'
+
+'Eh!  No a son of auld Sir Davie?'
+
+'His youngest son.'
+
+The man clasped his hands, and uttered a strange sound as if in the
+extremity of amazement, and there was a curious unconscious change of
+tone, as he said--'Sir Davie's son!  Ye'll never have heard tell of
+Partan Jeannie?' he added.
+
+'A very old fishwife,' said Arthur, 'who used to come her rounds to our
+door?  Was she of kin to you?'
+
+'My mither, sir.  Mony's the time I hae peepit out on the cuddie's back
+between the creels at the door of the braw house of Burnside, and
+mony's the bannock and cookie the gude lady gied me.  My minnie'll no
+be living thae noo,' he added, not very tenderly.
+
+'I should fear not,' said Arthur.  'I had not seen or heard of her for
+some time before I left home, and that is now three years since.  She
+looked very old then, and I remember my mother saying she was not fit
+to come her rounds.'
+
+'She wasna that auld,' returned the merchant gravely; 'but she had led
+sic a life as falls to the lot of nae wife in this country.'
+
+Arthur had almost said, 'Whose fault was that?' but he durst not offend
+a possible protector, and softened his words into, 'It is strange to
+find you here, and a Mohammedan too.'
+
+'Hoots, Maister Arthur, let that flea stick by the wa'.  We maun do at
+Rome as Rome does, as ye'll soon find'--and disregarding Arthur's
+exclamation--'and the bit bairn, I thocht ye said he was no Scot, when
+I was daundering awa' at the French yestreen.'
+
+'No, he is half-Irish, half-French, eldest son of Count Burke, a good
+Jacobite, who got into trouble with the Prince of Orange, and is high
+in the French service.'
+
+'And what gars your father's son to be secretaire, as ye ca'd it, to
+Frenchman or Irishman either?'
+
+'Well, it was my own fault.  I was foolish enough to run away from
+school to join the rising for our own King's--'
+
+'Eh, sirs!  And has there been a rising on the Border side against the
+English pock puddings?  Oh, gin I had kenned it!'
+
+Yusuf's knowledge of English politics had been dim at the best, and he
+had apparently left Scotland before even Queen Anne was on the throne.
+When he understood Arthur's story, he communicated his own.  He had
+been engaged in a serious brawl with some English fishers, and in fear
+of the consequences had fled from Eyemouth, and after casting about as
+a common sailor in various merchant ships, had been captured by a
+Moorish vessel, and had found it expedient to purchase his freedom by
+conversion to Islam, after which his Scottish shrewdness and thrift had
+resulted in his becoming a prosperous itinerant merchant, with his
+headquarters at Bona.  He expressed himself willing and anxious to do
+all he could for his young countryman; but it would be almost
+impossible to do so unless Arthur would accept the religion of his
+captors; and he explained that the two boys were the absolute property
+of the tribe, who had discovered and rescued them when going to the
+seashore to gather kelp for the glass work practised by the Moors in
+their little furnaces.
+
+'Forsake my religion?  Never!' cried Arthur indignantly.
+
+'Saftly, saftly,' said Yusuf; 'nae doot ye trow as I did that they are
+a' mere pagans and savage heathens, worshipping Baal and Ashtaroth, but
+I fand myself quite mista'en.  They hae no idols, and girn at the
+blinded Papists as muckle as auld Deacon Shortcoats himsel'.'
+
+'I know that,' threw in Arthur.
+
+'Ay, and they are a hantle mair pious and devout than ever a body I hae
+seen in Eyemouth, or a' the country side to boot; forbye, my minnie's
+auld auntie, that sat graning by the ingle, and ay banned us when we
+came ben.  The meneester himsel' dinna gae about blessing and praying
+over ilka sma' matter like the meenest of us here, and for a' the din
+they make at hame about the honorable Sabbath, wha thinks of praying
+five times the day?  While as for being the waur for liquor, these
+folks kenna the very taste of it.  Put yon sheyk down on the wharf at
+Eyemouth, and what wad he say to the Christian folk there?'
+
+A shock of conviction passed over Arthur, though he tried to lose it in
+indignant defence; but Yusuf did not venture to stay any longer with
+him, and bidding him think over what had been said, since slavery or
+Islam were the only alternatives, returned to the tents of merchandise.
+
+First thoughts with the youth had of course been of horror at the bare
+idea of apostacy, and yet as he watched his Moorish hosts, he could not
+but own to himself that he never had dreamt that to be among them would
+be so like dwelling under the oak of Mamre, in the tents of Abraham.
+From what he remembered of Partan Jeannie's reputation as a being only
+tolerated and assisted by his mother, on account of her extreme misery
+and destitution, he could believe that the ne'er-do-weel son, who must
+have forsaken her before he himself was born, might have really been
+raised in morality by association with the grave, faithful, and
+temperate followers of Mohammed, rather than the scum of the port of
+Eyemouth.
+
+For himself and the boy, what did slavery mean?  He hoped to understand
+better from Yusuf, and at any rate to persuade the man to become the
+medium of communication with the outside world, beyond that
+'dissociable ocean,' over which his wistful gaze wandered.  Then the
+ransom of the little Chevalier de Bourke would be certain, and, if
+there were any gratitude in the world, his own.  But how long would
+this take, and what might befall them in the meantime?
+
+Ulysse all this time seemed perfectly happy with the small Moors, who
+all romped together without distinction of rank, of master, slave or
+colour, for Yusuf's little negro was freely received among them.  At
+night, however, Ulysse's old home self seemed to revive; he crept back
+to Arthur, tired and weary, fretting for mother, sister, and home; and
+even after he had fallen asleep, waking again to cry for Julienne.
+Poor Arthur, he was a rough nurse, but pity kept him patient, and he
+was even glad to see that the child had not forgotten his home.
+
+Meantime, ever since the sunset prayer, there had been smoking of pipes
+and drinking of coffee, and earnest discussion between the sheyk and
+the merchant, and by and by Yusuf came and sat himself down by Arthur,
+smiling a little at the young man's difficulty in disposing of those
+long legs upon the ground.
+
+'Ye'll have to learn this and other things, sir,' said he, as he
+crossed his own under him, Eastern fashion; but his demeanour was on
+the whole that of the fisher to the laird's son, and he evidently
+thought that he had a grand proposal to make, for which Master Arthur
+ought to be infinitely obliged.
+
+He explained to Arthur that Sheyk Abou Ben Zegri had never had more
+than two sons, and that both had been killed the year before in trying
+to recover their cattle from the Cabeleyzes, 'a sort of Hieland
+caterans.'
+
+The girl whom Arthur had noticed was the widow of the elder of the two,
+and the child was only a daughter.  The sheyk had been much impressed
+by Arthur's exploit in swimming or floating round the headland and
+saving the child, and regarded his height as something gigantic.
+Moreover, Yusuf had asserted that he was son to a great Bey in his own
+country, and in consequence Abou Ben Zegri was willing to adopt him as
+his son, provided he would embrace the true faith, and marry Ayesha,
+the widow.
+
+'And,' said Yusuf, 'these women are no that ill for wives, as I ken
+owre weel'--and he sighed.  'I had as gude and douce a wee wifie at
+Bona as heart culd wish, and twa bonny bairnies; but when I cam' back
+frae my rounds, the plague had been there before me.  They were a'
+gone, even Ali, that had just began to ca' me Ab, Ab, and I hae never
+had heart to gang back to the town house.  She was a gude wife--nae
+flying, nae rampauging.  She wad hae died wi' shame to be likened to
+thae randy wives at hame.  Ye might do waur than tak' such a fair
+offer, Maister Arthur.'
+
+'You mean it all kindly,' said Arthur, touched; 'but for nothing--no,
+for nothing, can a Christian deny his Lord, or yield up his hopes for
+hereafter.'
+
+'As for that,' returned Yusuf, 'the meneester and Beacon Shortcoats,
+and my auld auntie, and the lave of them, aye ca'ed me a vessel of
+destruction.  That was the best name they had for puir Tam.  So what
+odds culd it mak, if I took up with the Prophet, and I was ower lang
+leggit to row in a galley?  Forbye, here they say that a man who prays
+and gies awmous, and keeps frae wine, is sicker to win to Paradise and
+a' the houris.  I had rather it war my puir Zorah than any strange
+houri of them a'; but any way, I hae been a better man sin' I took up
+wi' them than ever I was as a cursing, swearing, drunken, fechting
+sailor lad wha feared neither God nor devil.'
+
+'That was scarce the fault of the Christian faith,' said Arthur.
+
+'Aweel, the first answer in the Shorter Carritch was a' they ever
+garred me learn, and that is what we here say of Allah.  I see no
+muckle to choose, and I KEN ane thing,--it is a hell on earth at ance
+gin ye gang not alang wi' them.  And that's sicker, as ye'll find to
+your cost, sir, gin ye be na the better guided.'
+
+'With hope, infinite hope beyond,' said Arthur, trying to fortify
+himself.  'No, I cannot, cannot deny my Lord--my Lord that bought me!'
+
+'We own Issa Ben Mariam for a Prophet,' said Yusuf.
+
+'But He is my only Master, my Redeemer, and God.  No, come what may, I
+can never renounce Him,' said Arthur with vehemence.
+
+'Wed, awed,' said Yusuf, 'maybe ye'll see in time what's for your gude.
+I'll tell the sheyk it would misbecome your father's son to do sic a
+deed owre lichtly, and strive to gar him wait while I am in these parts
+to get your word, and nae doot it will be wiselike at the last.'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII--MASTER AND SLAVE
+
+
+
+'I only heard the reckless waters roar,
+Those waves that would not hear me from the shore;
+I only marked the glorious sun and sky
+Too bright, too blue for my captivity,
+And felt that all which Freedom's bosom cheers,
+Must break my chain before it dried my tears.'
+BYRON (The corsair).
+
+At the rate at which the traffic in Yusuf's tent proceeded, Arthur Hope
+was likely to have some little time for deliberation on the question
+presented to him whether to be a free Moslem sheyk or a Christian
+slave.
+
+Not only had almost every household in El Arnieh to chaffer with the
+merchant for his wares and to dispose of home-made commodities, but
+from other adowaras and from hill-farms Moors and Cabyles came in with
+their produce of wax, wool or silk, to barter--if not with Yusuf, with
+the inhabitants of El Arnieh, who could weave and embroider, forge
+cutlery, and make glass from the raw material these supplied.  Other
+Cabyles, divers from the coast, came up, with coral and sponges, the
+latter of which was the article in which Yusuf preferred to deal,
+though nothing came amiss to him that he could carry, or that could
+carry itself--such as a young foal; even the little black boy had been
+taken on speculation--and so indeed had the big Abyssinian, who, though
+dumb, was the most useful, ready, and alert of his five slaves.  Every
+bargain seemed to occupy at least an hour, and perhaps Yusuf lingered
+the longer in order to give Arthur more time for consideration; or it
+might be that his native tongue, once heard, exercised an irresistible
+fascination over him.  He never failed to have what he called a 'crack'
+with his young countryman at the hour of the siesta, or at night,
+perhaps persuading the sheyk that it was controversial, though it was
+more apt to be on circumstances of the day's trade or the news of the
+Border-side.  Controversy indeed there could be little with one so
+ignorant as kirk treatment in that century was apt to leave the
+outcasts of society, nor had conversion to Islam given him much
+instruction in its tenets; so that the conversation generally was on
+earthly topics, though it always ended in assurances that Master Arthur
+would suffer for it if he did not perceive what was for his good.  To
+which Arthur replied to the effect that he must suffer rather than deny
+his faith; and Yusuf, declaring that a wilful man maun have his way,
+and that he would rue it too late, went off affronted, but always
+returned to the charge at the next opportunity.
+
+Meantime Arthur was free to wander about unmolested and pick up the
+language, in which, however, Ulysse made far more rapid progress, and
+could be heard chattering away as fast, if not as correctly, as if it
+were French or English.  The delicious climate and the open-air life
+were filling the little fellow with a strength and vigour unknown to
+him in a Parisian salon, and he was in the highest spirits among his
+brown playfellows, ceasing to pine for his mother and sister; and
+though he still came to Arthur for the night, or in any trouble, it was
+more and more difficult to get him to submit to be washed and dressed
+in his tight European clothes, or to say his prayers.  He was always
+sleepy at night and volatile in the morning, and could not be got to
+listen to the little instructions with which Arthur tried to arm him
+against Mohammedanism into which the poor little fellow was likely to
+drift as ignorantly and unconsciously as Yusuf himself.
+
+And what was the alternative?  Arthur himself never wavered, nor indeed
+actually felt that he had a choice; but the prospect before him was
+gloomy, and Yusuf did not soften it.  The sheyk would sell him, and he
+would either be made to work in some mountain-farm, or put on board a
+galley; and Yusuf had sufficient experience of the horrors of the
+latter to assure him emphatically that the gude leddy of Burnside would
+break her heart to think of her bonny laddie there.
+
+'It would more surely break her heart to think of her son giving up his
+faith,' returned Arthur.
+
+As to the child, the opinion of the tribe seemed to be that he was just
+fit to be sent to the Sultan to be bred as a Janissary.  'He will come
+that gate to be as great a man as in his ain countree,' said Yusuf;
+'wi' horse to ride, and sword to bear, and braws to wear, like King
+Solomon in all his glory.'
+
+'While his father and mother would far rather he were lying dead with
+her under the waves in that cruel bay,' returned Arthur.
+
+'Hout, mon, ye dinna ken what's for his gude, nor for your ain
+neither,' retorted Yusuf.
+
+'Good here is not good hereafter.'
+
+'The life of a dog and waur here,' muttered Yusuf; 'ye'll mind me when
+it is too late.'
+
+'Nay, Yusuf, if you will only take word of our condition to Algiers, we
+shall--at least the boy--be assuredly redeemed, and you would win a
+high reward.'
+
+'I am no free to gang to Algiers,' said Yusuf.  'I fell out with a loon
+there, one of those Janissaries that gang hectoring aboot as though the
+world were not gude enough for them, and if I hadna made the best of my
+way out of the toon, my pow wad be a worricow on the wa's of the
+tower.'
+
+'There are French at Bona, you say.  Remember, I ask you to put
+yourself in no danger, only to bear the tidings to any European,'
+entreated Arthur.
+
+'And how are they to find ye?' demanded Yusuf.  'Abou Ben Zegri will
+never keep you here after having evened his gude-daughter to ye.  He'll
+sell you to some corsair captain, and then the best that could betide
+ye wad be that a shot frae the Knights of Malta should make quick work
+wi' ye.  Or look at the dumbie there, Fareek.  A Christian, he ca's
+himsel', too, though 'tis of a by ordinar' fashion, such as Deacon
+Shortcoats would scarce own.  I coft him dog cheap at Tunis, when his
+master, the Vizier, had had his tongue cut out--for but knowing o' some
+deed that suld ne'er have been done--and his puir feet bastinadoed to a
+jelly.  Gin a' the siller in the Dey's treasury ransomed ye, what gude
+would it do ye after that?'
+
+'I cannot help that--I cannot forsake my God.  I must trust Him not to
+forsake me.'
+
+And, as usual, Yusuf went off angrily muttering, 'He that will to Cupar
+maun to Cupar.'
+
+Perhaps Arthur's resistance had begun more for the sake of honour, and
+instinctive clinging to hereditary faith, without the sense of heroism
+or enthusiasm for martyrdom which sustained Estelle, and rather with
+the feeling that inconstancy to his faith and his Lord would be base
+and disloyal.  But, as the long days rolled on, if the future of toil
+and dreary misery developed itself before him, the sense of personal
+love and aid towards the Lord and Master whom he served grew upon him.
+Neither the gazelle-eyed Ayesha nor the prosperous village life
+presented any great temptation.  He would have given them all for one
+bleak day of mist on a Border moss; it was the appalling contrast with
+the hold of a Moorish galley that at times startled him, together with
+the only too great probability that he should be utterly incapable of
+saving poor little Ulysse from unconscious apostacy.
+
+Once Yusuf observed, that if he would only make outward submission to
+Moslem law, he might retain his own belief and trust in the Lord he
+seemed so much to love, and of whom he said more good than any Moslem
+did of the Prophet.
+
+'If I deny Him, He will deny me,' said Arthur.
+
+'And will na He forgive ane as is hard pressed?' asked Yusuf.
+
+'It is a very different thing to go against the light, as I should be
+doing,' said Arthur, 'and what it might be for that poor bairn, whom
+Cod preserve.'
+
+'And wow! sir.  'Tis far different wi' you that had the best of gude
+learning frae the gude leddy,' muttered Yusuf.  'My minnie aye needit
+me to sort the fish and gang her errands, and wad scarce hae sent me to
+scule, gin I wad hae gane where they girned at me for Partan Jeannie's
+wean, and gied me mair o' the tawse than of the hornbook.  Gin the
+Lord, as ye ca' Him, had ever seemed to me what ye say He is to you,
+Maister Arthur, I micht hae thocht twice o'er the matter.  But there's
+nae ganging back the noo.  A Christian's life they harm na, though they
+mak' it a mere weariness to him; but for him that quits the Prophet,
+tearing the flesh wi' iron cleeks is the best they hae for him.'
+
+This time Yusuf retreated, not as usual in anger, but as if the bare
+idea he had broached was too terrible to be dwelt upon.  He had by the
+end of a fortnight completed all his business at El Arnieh, and Arthur,
+having by this time picked up enough of the language to make himself
+comprehensible, and to know fully what was set before him, was called
+upon to make his decision, so that either he might be admitted by
+regular ritual into the Moslem faith, and adopted by the sheyk, or else
+be advertised by Yusuf at the next town as a strong young slave.
+
+Sitting in the gate among the village magnates, like an elder of old,
+Sheyk Abou Ben Zegri, with considerable grace and dignity, set the
+choice before the Son of the Sea in most affectionate terms, asking of
+him to become the child of his old age, and to heal the breach left by
+the swords of the robbers of the mountains.
+
+The old man's fine dark eyes filled with tears, and there was a pathos
+in his noble manner that made Arthur greatly grieved to disappoint him,
+and sorry not to have sufficient knowledge of the language to qualify
+more graciously the resolute reply he had so often rehearsed to
+himself, expressing his hearty thanks, but declaring that nothing could
+induce him to forsake the religion of his fathers.
+
+'Wilt thou remain a dog of an unbeliever, and receive the treatment of
+dogs?'
+
+'I must,' said Arthur.
+
+'The youth is a goodly youth,' said the sheyk; 'it is ill that his
+heart is blind.  Once again, young man, Issa Ben Mariam and slavery, or
+Mohammed and freedom?'
+
+'I cannot deny my Lord Christ.'
+
+There was a pause.  Arthur stood upright, with lips compressed, hands
+clasped together, while the sheyk and his companions seemed struck by
+his courage and high spirit.  Then one of them--a small, ugly fellow,
+who had some pretensions to be considered the sheyk's next heir--cried,
+'Out on the infidel dog!' and set the example of throwing a handful of
+dust at him.  The crowd who watched around were not slow to follow the
+example, and Arthur thought he was actually being stoned; but the
+missiles were for the most part not harmful, only disgusting, blinding,
+and confusing.  There was a tremendous hubbub of vituperation, and he
+was at last actually stunned by a blow, waking to find himself alone,
+and with hands and feet bound, in a dirty little shed appropriated to
+camels.  Should he ever be allowed to see poor little Ulysse again, or
+to speak to Yusuf, in whom lay their only faint hope of redemption?  He
+was helpless, and the boy was at the mercy of the Moors.  Was he
+utterly forsaken?
+
+It was growing late in the day, and he had had no food for many hours.
+Was he to be neglected and starved?  At last he heard steps
+approaching, and the door was opened by the man who had led the assault
+on him, who addressed him as 'Son of an old ass--dog of a slave,' bade
+him stand up and show his height, at the same time cutting the cords
+that bound him.  It was an additional pang that it was to Yusuf that he
+was thus to exhibit himself, no doubt in order that the merchant should
+carry a description of him to some likely purchaser.  He could not
+comprehend the words that passed, but it was very bitter to be handled
+like a horse at a fair--doubly so that he, a Hope of Burnside, should
+thus be treated by Partan Jeannie's son.
+
+There ensued outside the shrieking and roaring which always accompanied
+a bargain, and which lasted two full hours.  Finally Yusuf looked into
+the hut, and roughly said in Arabic, 'Come over to me, dog; thou art
+mine.  Kiss the shoe of thy master'--adding in his native tongue, 'For
+ance, sir.  It maun be done before these loons.'
+
+Certainly the ceremony would have been felt as less humiliating towards
+almost anybody else, but Arthur endured it; and then was led away to
+the tents beyond the gate.
+
+'There, sir,' said Yusuf, 'it ill sorts your father's son to be in sic
+a case, but it canna be helpit.  I culd na leave behind the bonny Scots
+tongue, let alane the gude Leddy Hope's son.'
+
+'You have been very good to me, Yusuf,' said Arthur, his pride much
+softened by the merchant's evident sense of the situation.  'I know you
+mean me well, but the boy--'
+
+'Hoots! the bairn is happy eno'.  He will come to higher preferment
+than even you or I.  Why, mon, an Aga of the Janissaries is as good as
+the Deuk himsel'.'
+
+'Yusuf, I am very grateful--I believe you must have paid heavily to
+spare me from ill usage.'
+
+'Ye may say that, sir.  Forty piastres of Tunis, and eight mules, and
+twa pair of silver-mounted pistols.  The extortionate rogue wad hae had
+the little dagger, but I stood out against that.'
+
+'I see, I am deeply beholden,' said Arthur; 'but it would be tenfold
+better if you would take him instead of me!'
+
+'What for suld I do that?  He is nae countryman of mine--one side
+French and the other Irish.  He is naught to me.'
+
+'He is heir to a noble house,' waged Arthur.  'They will reward you
+amply for saving him.'
+
+'Mair like to girn at me for a Moor.  Na, na!  Hae na I dune enough for
+ye, Maister Arthur--giving half my beasties, and more than half my
+silver?  Canna ye be content without that whining bairn?'
+
+'I should be a forsworn man to be content to leave the child, whose
+dead mother prayed me to protect him, and those who will turn him from
+her faith.  See, now, I am a man, and can guard myself, by the grace of
+God; but to leave the poor child here would be letting these men work
+their will on him ere any ransom could come.  His mother would deem it
+giving him up to perdition.  Let me remain here, and take the helpless
+child.  You know how to bargain.  His price might be my ransom.'
+
+'Ay, when the jackals and hyenas have picked your banes, or you have
+died under the lash, chained to the oar, as I hae seen, Maister
+Arthur.'
+
+'Better so than betray the dead woman's trust.  How no--'
+
+For there was a pattering of feet, a cry of 'Arthur, Arthur!' and
+sobbing, screaming, and crying, Ulysse threw himself on his friend's
+breast.  He was pursued by one or two of the hangers-on of the sheyk's
+household, and the first comer seized him by the arm; but he clung to
+Arthur, screamed and kicked, and the old nurse who had come hobbling
+after coaxed in vain.  He cried out in a mixture of Arabic and French
+that he WOULD sleep with Arthur--Arthur must put him to bed; no one
+should take him away.
+
+'Let him stay,' responded Yusuf; 'his time will come soon enough.'
+
+Indulgence to children was the rule, and there was an easy good-nature
+about the race, which made them ready to defer the storm, and acquiesce
+in the poor little fellow remaining for another evening with that last
+remnant of his home to whom he always reverted at nightfall.
+
+He held trembling by Arthur till all were gone, then looked about in
+terror, and required to be assured that no one was coming to take him
+away.
+
+'They shall not,' he cried.  'Arthur, you will not leave me alone?
+They are all gone--Mamma, and Estelle, and la bonne, and Laurent, and
+my uncle, and all, and you will not go.'
+
+'Not now, not to-night, my dear little mannie,' said Arthur, tears in
+his eyes for the first time throughout these misfortunes.
+
+'Not now!  No, never!' said the boy hugging him almost to choking.
+'That naughty Ben Kader said they had sold you for a slave, and you
+were going away; but I knew I should find you--you are not a slave!--
+you are not black--'
+
+'Ah!  Ulysse, it is too true; I am--'
+
+'No! no! no!' the child stamped, and hung on him in a passion of tears.
+'You shall not be a slave.  My papa shall come with his soldiers and
+set you free.'
+
+Altogether the boy's vehemence, agitation, and terror were such that
+Arthur found it impossible to do anything but soothe and hush him, as
+best might be, till his sobs subsided gradually, still heaving his
+little chest even after he fell asleep in the arms of his unaccustomed
+nurse, who found himself thus baffled in using this last and only
+opportunity of trying to strengthen the child's faith, and was also
+hindered from pursuing Yusuf, who had left the tent.  And if it were
+separation that caused all this distress, what likelihood that Yusuf
+would encumber himself with a child who had shown such powers of
+wailing and screaming?
+
+He durst not stir nor speak for fear of wakening the boy, even when
+Yusuf returned and stretched himself on his mat, drawing a thick
+woollen cloth over him, for the nights were chill.  Long did Arthur lie
+awake under the strange sense of slavery and helplessness, and utter
+uncertainty as to his fate, expecting, in fact, that Yusuf meant to
+keep him as a sort of tame animal to talk Scotch; but hoping to work on
+him in time to favour an escape, and at any rate to despatch a letter
+to Algiers, as a forlorn hope for the ultimate redemption of the poor
+little unconscious child who lay warm and heavy across his breast.
+Certainly, Arthur had never so prayed for aid, light. and deliverance
+as now!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII--THE SEARCH
+
+
+
+'The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks,
+The long day wanes, the slow moon climbs.  The deep
+Moans round with many voices.  Come, my friends.'
+TENNYSON.
+
+Arthur fell asleep at last, and did not waken till after sunrise, nor
+did Ulysse, who must have been exhausted with crying and struggling.
+When they did awaken, Arthur thinking with heavy heart that the moment
+of parting was come, he saw indeed the other three slaves busied in
+making bales of the merchandise; but the master, as well as the
+Abyssinian, Fareek, and the little negro were all missing.  Bekir, who
+was a kind of foreman, and looked on the new white slave with some
+jealousy, roughly pointed to some coarse food, and in reply to the
+question whether the merchant was taking leave of the sheyk, intimated
+that it was no business of theirs, and assumed authority to make his
+new fellow-slave assist in the hardest of the packing.
+
+Arthur had no heart to resist, much as it galled him to be ordered
+about by this rude fellow.  It was only a taste, as he well knew, of
+what he had embraced, and he was touched by poor little Ulysse's
+persistency in keeping as close as possible, though his playfellows
+came down and tried first to lure, then to drag him away, and finally
+remained to watch the process of packing up.  Though Bekir was too
+disdainful to reply to his fellow-slave's questions, Arthur picked up
+from answers to the Moors who came down that Yusuf had recollected that
+he had not finished his transactions with a little village of Cabyle
+coral and sponge-fishers on the coast, and had gone down thither,
+taking the little negro, to whom the headman seemed to have taken a
+fancy, so as to become a possible purchaser, and with the Abyssinian to
+attend to the mules.
+
+A little before sundown Yusuf returned.  Fareek lifted down a pannier
+covered by a crimson and yellow kerchief, and Yusuf declared, with much
+apparent annoyance, that the child was sick, and that this had
+frustrated the sale.  He was asleep, must be carried into the tent, and
+not disturbed:  for though the Cabyles had not purchased him, there was
+no affording to loose anything of so much value.  Moreover, observing
+Ulysse still hovering round the Scot, he said, 'You may bide here the
+night, laddie, I ha tell't the sheyk;' and he repeated the same to the
+slaves in Arabic, dismissing them to hold a parting feast on a lamb
+stuffed with pistachio nuts, together with their village friends.
+
+Then drawing near to Arthur, he said, 'Can ye gar yon wean keep a quiet
+sough, if we make him pass for the little black?'
+
+Arthur started with joy, and stammered some words of intense relief and
+gratitude.
+
+'The deed's no dune yet,' said Yusuf, 'and it is ower like to end in
+our leaving a' our banes on the sands!  But a wilfu' man maun have his
+way,' he repeated; 'so, sir, if it be your wull, ye'd better speak to
+the bairn, for we must make a blackamoor of him while there is licht to
+do it, or Bekir, whom I dinna lippen to, comes back frae the feast.'
+
+Ulysse, being used to Irish-English, had little understanding of
+Yusuf's broad Scotch; but he was looking anxiously from one to the
+other of the speakers, and when Arthur explained to him that the
+disguise, together with perfect silence, was the only hope of not being
+left behind among the Moors, and the best chance of getting back to his
+home and dear ones again, he perfectly understood.  As to the
+blackening, for which Yusuf had prepared a mixture to be laid on with a
+feather, it was perfectly enchanting to faire la comedie.  He laughed
+so much that he had to be peremptorily hushed, and they were sensible
+of the danger that in case of a search he might betray himself to his
+Moorish friends; and Arthur tried to make him comprehend the extreme
+danger, making him cry so that his cheeks had to be touched up.  His
+eyes and hair were dark, and the latter was cut to its shortest by
+Yusuf, who further managed to fasten some tufts of wool dipped in the
+black unguent to the kerchief that bound his head.  The childish
+features had something of the Irish cast, which lent itself to the
+transformation, and in the scanty garments of the little negro Arthur
+owned that he should never have known the small French gentleman.
+Arthur was full of joy--Yusuf gruff, brief, anxious, like one acting
+under some compulsion most unwillingly, and even despondently, but
+apparently constrained by a certain instinctive feudal feeling, which
+made him follow the desires of the young Border laird's son.
+
+All had been packed beforehand, and there was nothing to be done but to
+strike the tents, saddle the mules, and start.  Ulysse, still very
+sleepy, was lifted into the pannier, almost at the first streak of
+dawn, while the slaves were grumbling at being so early called up; and
+to a Moor who wakened up and offered to take charge of the little Bey,
+Yusuf replied that the child had been left in the sheyk's house.
+
+So they were safely out at the outer gate, and proceeding along a
+beautiful path leading above the cliffs.  The mules kept in one long
+string, Bekir with the foremost, which was thus at some distance from
+the hindmost, which carried Ulysse and was attended by Arthur, while
+the master rode his own animals and gave directions.  The fiction of
+illness was kept up, and when the bright eyes looked up in too lively a
+manner, Yusuf produced some of the sweets, which were always part of
+his stock in trade, as a bribe to quietness.
+
+At sunrise, the halt for prayer was a trial to Arthur's intense
+anxiety, and far more so was the noontide one for sleep.  He even
+ventured a remonstrance, but was answered, 'Mair haste, worse speed.
+Our lives are no worth a boddle till the search is over.'
+
+They were on the shady side of a great rock overhung by a beautiful
+creeping plant, and with a spring near at hand, and Yusuf, in leisurely
+fashion, squatted down, caused Arthur to lift out the child, who was
+fast asleep again, and the mules to be allowed to feed, and distributed
+some dried goat's flesh and dates; but Ulysse, somewhat to Arthur's
+alarm, did not wake sufficiently to partake.
+
+Looking up in alarm, he met a sign from Yusuf and presently a whisper,
+'No hurt done--'tis safer thus--'
+
+And by this time there were alarming sounds on the air.  The sheyk and
+two of the chief men of El Arnieh were on horseback and armed with
+matchlocks; and the whole 'posse of the village were following on foot,
+with yells and vituperations of the entire ancestry of the merchant,
+and far more complicated and furious threats than Arthur could follow;
+but he saw Yusuf go forward to meet them with the utmost cool courtesy.
+
+They seemed somewhat discomposed:  Yusuf appeared to condole with them
+on the loss, and, waving his hands, put all his baggage at their
+service for a search, letting them run spears through the bales, and
+overturn the baskets of sponges, and search behind every rock.  When
+they approached the sleeping boy, Arthur, with throbbing heart, dimly
+comprehended that Yusuf was repeating the story of the disappointment
+of a purchase caused by his illness, and lifting for a moment the
+covering laid over him to show the bare black legs and arms.  There
+might also have been some hint of infection which, in spite of all
+Moslem belief in fate, deterred Abou Ben Zegri from an over-close
+inspection.  Yusuf further invented a story of having put the little
+Frank in charge of a Moorish woman in the adowara; but added he was so
+much attached to the Son of the Sea, that most likely he had wandered
+out in search of him, and the only wise course would be to seek him
+before he was devoured by any of the wild beasts near home.
+
+Nevertheless, there was a courteous and leisurely smoking of pipes and
+drinking of coffee before the sheyk and his followers turned homewards.
+To Arthur's alarm and surprise, however, Yusuf did not resume the
+journey, but told Bekir that there would hardly be a better halting-
+place within their powers, as the sun was already some way on his
+downward course; and besides, it would take some time to repack the
+goods which had been cast about in every direction during the search.
+The days were at their shortest, though that was not very short,
+closing in at about five o'clock, so that there was not much time to
+spare.  Arthur began to feel some alarm at the continued drowsiness of
+the little boy, who only once muttered something, turned round, and
+slept again.
+
+'What have you done to him?' asked Arthur anxiously.
+
+'The poppy,' responded Yusuf.  'Never fash yoursel'.  The bairn willna
+be a hair the waur, and 'tis better so than that he shuld rax a' our
+craigs.'
+
+Yusuf's peril was so much the greater, that it was impossible to object
+to any of his precautions, especially as he might take offence and
+throw the whole matter over; but it was impossible not to chafe
+secretly at the delay, which seemed incomprehensible.  Indeed, the
+merchant was avoiding private communication with Arthur, only assuming
+the master, and ordering about in a peremptory fashion which it was
+very hard to digest.
+
+After the sunset orisons had been performed, Yusuf regaled his slaves
+with a donation of coffee and tobacco, but with a warning to Arthur not
+to partake, and to keep to windward of them.  So too did the
+Abyssinian, and the cause of the warning was soon evident, as Bekir and
+his companion nodded, and then sank into a slumber as sound as that of
+the little Frenchman.  Indeed, Arthur himself was weary enough to fall
+asleep soon after sundown, in spite of his anxiety, and the stars were
+shining like great lamps when Yusuf awoke him.  One mule stood equipped
+beside him, and held by the Abyssinian.  Yusuf pointed to the child,
+and said, 'Lift him upon it.'
+
+Arthur obeyed, finding a pannier empty on one side to receive the
+child, who only muttered and writhed instead of awaking.  The other
+side seemed laden.  Yusuf led the animal, retracing their way, while
+fire-flies flitted around with their green lights, and the distant
+laughter of hyenas gave Arthur a thrill of loathing horror.  Huge bats
+fluttered round, and once or twice grim shapes crossed their path.
+
+'Uncanny beasties,' quoth Yusuf; 'but they will soon be behind us.'
+
+He turned into a rapidly-sloping path.  Arthur felt a fresh salt breeze
+in his face, and his heart leapt up with hope.
+
+In about an hour and a half they had reached a cove, shut in by dark
+rocks which in the night looked immeasurable, but on the white beach a
+few little huts were dimly discernible, one with a light in it.  The
+sluggish dash of waves could be heard on the shore; there was a sense
+of infinite space and breadth before them; and Jupiter sitting in the
+north-west was like an enormous lamp, casting a pathway of light
+shimmering on the waters to lead the exiles home.
+
+Three or four boats were drawn up on the beach; a man rose up from
+within one, and words in a low voice were exchanged between him and
+Yusuf; while Fareek, grinning so that his white teeth could be seen in
+the starlight, unloaded the mule, placing its packs, a long Turkish
+blunderbuss, and two skins of water, in the boat, and arranging a mat
+on which Arthur could lay the sleeping child.
+
+Well might the youth's heart bound with gratitude, as, unmindful of all
+the further risks and uncertainties to be encountered, he almost saw
+his way back to Burnside!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX--ESCAPE
+
+
+
+'Beside the helm he sat, steering expert,
+Nor sleep fell ever on his eyes that watch'd
+Intent the Pleiads, tardy in decline,
+Bootes and the Bear, call'd else the Wain,
+Which in his polar prison circling, looks
+Direct towards Orion, and alone
+Of these sinks never to the briny deep.'
+Odyssey (COWPER).
+
+The boat was pushed off, the Abyssinian leapt into it; Arthur paused to
+pour out his thankfulness to Yusuf, but was met with the reply, 'Hout
+awa'!  Time enugh for that--in wi' ye.'  And fancying there was some
+alarm, he sprang in, and to his amazement found Yusuf instantly at his
+side, taking the rudder, and giving some order to Fareek, who had taken
+possession of a pair of oars; while the waters seemed to flash and
+glitter a welcome at every dip.
+
+'You are coming! you are coming!' exclaimed Arthur, clasping the
+merchant's hand, almost beside himself with joy.
+
+'Sma' hope wad there be of a callant like yersel' and the wean there
+winning awa' by yer lane,' growled Yusuf.
+
+'You have given up all for us.'
+
+'There wasna muckle to gie,' returned the sponge merchant.  'Sin' the
+gudewife and her bit bairnies at Bona were gane, I hadna the heart to
+gang thereawa', nor quit the sound o' the bonny Scots tongue.  I wad as
+soon gang to the bottom as to the toom house.  For dinna ye trow
+yersells ower sicker e'en the noo.'
+
+'Is there fear of pursuit?'
+
+'No mickle o' that.  The folk here are what they ca' Cabyles, a douce
+set, not forgathering with Arabs nor wi' Moors.  I wad na gang among
+them till the search was over to-day; but yesterday I saw yon carle,
+and coft the boatie frae him for the wee blackamoor and the mule.  The
+Moors at El Aziz are not seafaring; and gin the morn they jalouse what
+we have done, we have the start of them.  Na, I'm not feared for them;
+but forbye that, this is no the season for an open boatie wi' a crew of
+three and a wean.  Gin we met an Algerian or Tunisian cruiser, as we
+are maist like to do, a bullet or drooning wad be ower gude in their
+e'en for us--for me, that is to say.  They wad spare the bairn, and may
+think you too likely a lad to hang on the walls like a split corbie on
+the woodsman's lodge.'
+
+'Well, Yusuf, my name is Hope, you know,' said Arthur.  'God has
+brought us so far, and will scarce leave us now.  I feel three times
+the man that I was when I lay down this evening.  Do we keep to the
+north, where we are sure to come to a Christian land in time?'
+
+'Easier said than done.  Ye little ken what the currents are in this
+same sea, or deed ye'll soon ken when we get into them.'
+
+Arthur satisfied himself that they were making for the north by looking
+at the Pole Star, so much lower than he was used to see it in Scotland
+that he hardly recognised his old friend; but, as he watched the
+studded belt of the Hunter and the glittering Pleiades, the Horatian
+dread of Nimbosus Orion occurred to him as a thought to be put away.
+
+Meantime there was a breeze from the land, and the sail was hoisted.
+Yusuf bade both Arthur and Fareek lie down to sleep, for their
+exertions would be wanted by and by, since it would not be safe to use
+the sail by daylight.  It was very cold--wild blasts coming down from
+the mountains; but Arthur crept under the woollen mantle that had been
+laid over Ulysse, and was weary enough to sleep soundly.  Both were
+awakened by the hauling down of the mast; and the little boy, who had
+quite slept off the drug, scrambling out from under the covering, was
+astonished beyond measure at finding himself between the glittering,
+sparkling expanse of sea and the sky, where the sun had just leapt up
+in a blaze of gold.
+
+The white summits of Atlas were tipped with rosy light, beautiful to
+behold, though the voyagers had much rather have been out of sight of
+them.
+
+'How much have we made, Yusuf?' began Arthur.
+
+'Tam Armstrong, so please you, sir!  Yusuf's dead and buried the noo;
+and if I were farther beyant the grip of them that kenned him, my
+thrapple would feel all the sounder!'
+
+This day was, he further explained, the most perilous one, since they
+were by no means beyond the track of vessels plying on the coast; and
+as a very jagged and broken cluster of rocks lay near, he decided on
+availing themselves of the shelter they afforded.  The boat was steered
+into a narrow channel between two which stood up like the fangs of a
+great tooth, and afforded a pleasant shade; but there was such a
+screaming and calling of gulls, terns, cormorants, and all manner of
+other birds, as they entered the little strait, and such a cloud of
+them hovered and whirled overhead, that Tam uttered imprecations on
+their skirling, and bade his companions lie close and keep quiet till
+they had settled again, lest the commotion should betray that the rocks
+were the lair of fugitives.
+
+It was not easy to keep Ulysse quiet, for he was in raptures at the
+rush of winged creatures, and no less so at the wonderful sea-anemones
+and starfish in the pools, where long streamers of weed of beautiful
+colours floated on the limpid water.
+
+Nothing reduced him to stillness but the sight of the dried goat's
+flesh and dates that Tam Armstrong produced, and for which all had
+appetites, which had to be checked, since no one could tell how long it
+would be before any kind of haven could be reached.
+
+Arthur bathed himself and his charge in a pool, after Tam had
+ascertained that no many-armed squid or cuttlefish lurked within it.
+And while Ulysse disported himself like a little fish, Arthur did his
+best to restore him to his natural complexion, and tried to cleanse the
+little garments, which showed only too plainly the lack of any change,
+and which were the only Frank or Christian clothes among them, since
+young Hope himself had been almost stripped when he came ashore, and
+wore the usual garb of Yusuf's slaves.
+
+Presently Fareek made an imperative sign to hush the child's merry
+tongue; and peering forth in intense anxiety, the others perceived a
+lateen sail passing perilously near, but happily keeping aloof from the
+sharp reef of rocks around their shelter.  Arthur had forgotten the
+child's prayers and his own, but Ulysse connected them with dressing,
+and the alarm of the passing ship had recalled them to the young man's
+mind, though he felt shy as he found that Tam Armstrong was not asleep,
+but was listening and watching with his keen gray eyes under their
+grizzled brows.  Presently, when Ulysse was dropping to sleep again,
+the ex-merchant began to ask questions with the intelligence of his
+shrewd Scottish brains.
+
+The stern Calvinism of the North was wont to consign to utter neglect
+the outcast border of civilisation, where there were no decent parents
+to pledge themselves; and Partan Jeannie's son had grown up well-nigh
+in heathen ignorance among fisher lads and merchant sailors, till it
+had been left for him to learn among the Mohammedans both temperance
+and devotional habits.  His whole faith and understanding would have
+been satisfied for ever; but there had been strange yearnings within
+him ever since he had lost his wife and children, and these had not
+passed away when Arthur Hope came in his path.  Like many another
+renegade, he could not withstand the attraction of his native tongue;
+and in this case it was doubled by the feudal attachment of the
+district to the family of Burnside, and a grateful remembrance of the
+lady who had been one of the very few persons who had ever done a
+kindly deed by the little outcast.  He had broken with all his Moslem
+ties for Arthur Hope's sake; and these being left behind, he began to
+make some inquiries about that Christian faith to which he must needs
+return--if return be the right word in the case of one who knew it so
+little when he had abjured it.
+
+And Arthur had not been bred to the grim reading of the doctrine of
+predestination which had condemned poor Tam, even before he had
+embraced the faith of the Prophet.  Boyish, and not over thoughtful,
+the youth, when brought face to face with apostacy, had been ready to
+give life or liberty rather than deny his Lord; and deepened by that
+great decision, he could hold up that Lord and Redeemer in colours that
+made Tam see that his clinging to his faith was not out of mere honour
+and constancy, but that Mohammed had been a poor and wretched
+substitute for Him whom the poor fellow had denied, not knowing what he
+did.
+
+'Weel!' he said, 'gin the Deacon and the auld aunties had tellt me as
+mickle about Him, thae Moors might ha' preached their thrapples sair
+for Tam.  Mashallah!  Maister Arthur, do ye think, noo, He can forgie a
+puir carle for turning frae Him an' disowning Him?'
+
+'I am sure of it, Tam.  He forgives all who come to Him--and you--you
+did it in ignorance.'
+
+'And you trow na that I am a vessel of wrath, as they aye said?'
+
+'No, no, no, Tam.  How could that be with one who has done what you
+have for us?  There is good in you--noble goodness, Tam; and who could
+have put it there but God, the Holy Spirit?  I believe myself He was
+leading you all the time, though you did not know it; making you a
+better man first, and now, through this brave kindness to us, bringing
+you back to be a real true Christian and know Him.'
+
+Arthur felt as if something put the words into his mouth, but he felt
+them with all his heart, and the tears were in his eyes.
+
+At sundown Tam grew restless.  Force of habit impelled him to turn to
+Mecca and make his devotions as usual, and after nearly kneeling down
+on the flat stone, he turned to Arthur and said, 'I canna wed do
+without the bit prayer, sir.
+
+'No, indeed, Tam.  Only let it be in the right Name.'
+
+And Arthur knelt down beside him and said the Lord's Prayer--then,
+under a spell of bashfulness, muttered special entreaty for protection
+and safety.
+
+They were to embark again now that darkness would veil their movements,
+but the wind blew so much from the north that they could not raise the
+sail.  The oars were taken by Tam and Fareek at first, but when they
+came into difficult currents Arthur changed places with the former.
+
+And thus the hours passed.  The Mediterranean may be in our eyes a
+European lake, but it was quite large enough to be a desert of sea and
+sky to the little crew of an open boat, even though they were favoured
+by the weather.  Otherwise, indeed, they must have perished in the
+first storm.  They durst not sail except by night, and then only with
+northerly winds, nor could there be much rest, since they could not lay
+to, and drift with the currents, lest they should be carried back to
+the African coast.  Only one of the three men could sleep at a time,
+and that by one of the others taking both oars, and in time this could
+not but become very exhausting.  It was true that all the coasts to the
+north were of Christian lands; but in their Moorish garments and in
+perfect ignorance of Italian, strangers might fare no better in
+Sardinia or Sicily than in Africa, and Spain might be no better; but
+Tam endeavoured to keep a north-westerly course, thinking from what
+Arthur had said that in this direction there was more chance of being
+picked up by a French vessel.  Would their strength and provisions hold
+out?  Of this there was serious doubt.  Late in the year as it was, the
+heat and glare were as distressing by day as was the cold by night, and
+the continued exertion of rowing produced thirst, which made it very
+difficult to husband the water in the skins.  Tam and Fareek were both
+tough, and inured to heat and privation; but Arthur, scarce yet come to
+his full height, and far from having attained proportionate robustness
+and muscular strength, could not help flagging, though, whenever
+steering was of minor importance, Tam gave him the rudder, moved by his
+wan looks, for he never complained, even when fragments of dry goat's
+flesh almost choked his parched mouth.  The boy was never allowed to
+want for anything save water; but it was very hard to hear him fretting
+for it.  Tam took the goatskin into his own keeping, and more than once
+uttered a rough reproof, and yet Arthur saw him give the child half his
+own precious ration when it must have involved grievous suffering.  The
+promise about giving the cup of cold water to a little one could not
+but rise to his lips.
+
+'Cauld! and I wish it were cauld!' was all the response Tam made; but
+his face showed some gratification.
+
+This was no season for traffic, and they had barely seen a sail or two
+in the distance, and these only such as the experienced eyes of the ex-
+sponge merchant held to be dangerous.  Deadly lassitude began to seize
+the young Scot; he began scarcely to heed what was to become of them,
+and had not energy to try to console Ulysse, who, having in an
+unwatched moment managed to swallow some sea water, was crying and
+wailing under the additional misery he had inflicted on himself.  The
+sun beat down with noontide force, when on that fourth day, turning
+from its scorching, his languid eye espied a sail on the northern
+horizon.
+
+'See,' he cried; 'that is not the way of the Moors.'
+
+'Bismillah!  I beg your pardon, sir,' cried Tam, but said no more, only
+looked intently.
+
+Gradually, gradually the spectacle rose on their view fuller and
+fuller, not the ruddy wings of the Algerine or Italian, but the square
+white castle-like tiers of sails rising one above another, bearing
+along in a south-easterly direction.
+
+'English or French,' said Tam, with a long breath, for her colours and
+build were not yet discernible.  'Mashallah!  I beg pardon.  I mean,
+God grant she pass us not by!'
+
+The mast was hastily raised, with Tam's turban unrolled, floating at
+the top of it; and while he and Fareek plied their oars with might and
+main, he bade Arthur fire off at intervals the blunderbuss, which had
+hitherto lain idle at the bottom of the boat.
+
+How long the intense suspense lasted they knew not ere Arthur cried,
+'They are slackening sail!  Thank God.  Tam, you have saved us!
+English!'
+
+'Not so fast!' Tam uttered an Arabic and then a Scottish interjection.
+
+Their signal had been seen by other eyes.  An unmistakable Algerine,
+with the crescent flag, was bearing down on them from the opposite
+direction.
+
+'Rascals.  Do they not dread the British flag?' cried Arthur.  'Surely
+that will protect us?'
+
+'They are smaller and lighter, and with their galley slaves can defy
+the wind, and loup off like a flea in a blanket,' returned Tam, grimly.
+'Mair by token, they guess what we are, and will hold on to hae my
+life's bluid if naething mair!  Here!  Gie us a soup of the water, and
+the last bite of flesh.  'Twill serve us the noo, find we shall need it
+nae mair any way.'
+
+Arthur fed him, for he durst not slacken rowing for a moment.  Then
+seeing Fareek, who had borne the brunt of the fatigue, looking spent,
+the youth, after swallowing a few morsels and a little foul-smelling
+drink, took the second oar, while double force seemed given to the long
+arms lately so weary, and both pulled on in silent, grim desperation.
+Ulysse had given one scream at seeing the last of the water swallowed,
+but he too, understood the situation, and obeyed Arthur's brief words,
+'Kneel down and pray for us, my boy.'
+
+The Abyssinian was evidently doing the same, after having loaded the
+blunderbuss; but it was no longer necessary to use this as a signal,
+since the frigate had lowered her boat, which was rapidly coming
+towards them.
+
+But, alas! still more swiftly, as it seemed to those terrified eyes,
+came the Moorish boat--longer, narrower, more favoured by currents and
+winds, flying like a falcon towards its prey.  It was a fearful race.
+Arthur's head began to swim, his breath to labour, his arms to move
+stiffly as a thresher's flail; but, just as power was failing him, an
+English cheer came over the waters, and restored strength for a few
+more resolute strokes.
+
+Then came some puffs of smoke from the pirate's boat, a report, a jerk
+to their own, a fresh dash forward, even as Fareek fired, giving a
+moment's check to the enemy.  There was a louder cheer, several shots
+from the English boat, a cloud from the ship's side.  Then Arthur was
+sensible of a relaxation of effort, and that the chase was over, then
+that the British boat was alongside, friendly voices ringing in his
+ears, 'How now, mates?  Runaways, eh?  Where d'ye hail from?'
+
+'Scottish!  British!' panted out Arthur, unable to utter more, faint,
+giddy, and astounded by the cheers around him, and the hands stretched
+out in welcome.  He scarcely saw or understood.
+
+'Queer customers here!  What! a child!  Who are you, my little man?
+And what's this?  A Moor!  He's hit--pretty hard too.'
+
+This brought back Arthur's reeling senses in one flash of horror, at
+the sight of Tam, bleeding fast in the bottom of the boat.
+
+'O Tam!  Tam!  He saved me!  He is Scottish too,' cried Arthur.  'Sir,
+is he alive?'
+
+'I think so,' said the officer, who had bent over Tam.  'We'll have him
+aboard in a minute, and see what the doctor can do with him.  You seem
+to have had a narrow escape.'
+
+Arthur was too busy endeavouring to staunch the blood which flowed fast
+from poor Tam's side to make much reply, but Ulysse, perched on the
+officer's knee, was answering for him in mixed English and French.
+'Moi, je suis le Chevalier de Bourke!  My papa is ambassador to Sweden.
+This gentleman is his secretary.  We were shipwrecked--and M. Arture
+and I swam away together.  The Moors were good to us, and wanted to
+make us Moors; but M. Arture said it would be wicked.  And Yusuf bought
+him for a slave; but that was only from faire la comedie.  He is bon
+Chretien after all, and so is poor Fareek, only he is dumb.  Yusuf--
+that is, Tam--made me all black, and changed me for his little negro
+boy; and we got into the boat, and it was very hot, and oh!  I am so
+thirsty.  And now M. Arture will take me to Monsieur mon Pere, and get
+me some nice clothes again,' concluded the young gentleman, who, in
+this moment of return to civilised society, had become perfectly aware
+of his own rank and importance.
+
+Arthur only looked up to verify the child's statements, which had much
+struck the lieutenant.  Their boat had by this time been towed
+alongside of the frigate, and poor Tam was hoisted on board, and the
+surgeon was instantly at hand; but he said at once that the poor fellow
+was fast dying, and that it would be useless torture to carry him below
+for examination.
+
+A few words passed with the captain, and then the little Chevalier was
+led away to tell his own tale, which he was doing with a full sense of
+his own importance; but presently the captain returned, and beckoned to
+Arthur, who had been kneeling beside poor Tam, moistening his lips, and
+bathing his face, as he lay gasping and apparently unconscious, except
+that he had gripped hold of his broad sash or girdle when it was taken
+off.
+
+'The child tells me he is Comte de Bourke's son,' said the captain, in
+a tentative manner, as if doubtful whether he should be understood, and
+certainly Arthur looked more Moorish than European.
+
+'Yes, sir!  He was on his way with his mother to join his father when
+we were taken by a Moorish corsair.'
+
+'But you are not French?' said the captain, recognising the tones.
+
+'No, sir; Scottish--Arthur Maxwell Hope.  I was to have gone as the
+Count's secretary.'
+
+'You have escaped from the Moors?  I could not understand what the boy
+said.  Where are the lady and the rest?'
+
+Arthur as briefly as he could, for he was very anxious to return to
+poor Tam, explained the wreck and the subsequent adventures, saying
+that he feared the poor Countess was lost, but that he had seen her
+daughter and some of her suite on a rock.  Captain Beresford was
+horrified at the idea of a Christian child among the wild Arabs.  His
+station was Minorca, but he had just been at the Bay of Rosas, where
+poor Comte de Bourke's anxiety and distress about his wife and children
+were known, and he had received a request amounting to orders to try to
+obtain intelligence about them, so that he held it to be within his
+duty to make at once for Djigheli Bay.
+
+For further conversation was cut short by sounds of articulate speech
+from poor Tam.  Arthur turned hastily, and the captain proceeded to
+give his orders.
+
+'Is Maister Hope here?'
+
+'Here!  Yes.  O Tam, dear Tam, if I could do anything!' cried Arthur.
+
+'I canna see that well,' said Tam, with a sound of anxiety.  'Where's
+my sash?'
+
+'This is it, in your own hand,' said Arthur, thinking he was wandering,
+but the other hand sought one of the ample folds, which was sewn over,
+and weighty.
+
+'Tak' it; tak' tent of it; ye'll need the siller.  Four hunder piastres
+of Tunis, not countin' zeechins, and other sma' coin.'
+
+'Shall I send them to any one at Eyemouth?'
+
+Tam almost laughed.  'Na, na; keep them and use them yersell, sir.
+There's nane at hame that wad own puir Tam.  The leddy, your mither,
+an' you hae been mair to me than a' beside that's above ground, and
+what wad ye do wi'out the siller?'
+
+'O Tam!  I owe all and everything to you.  And now --'
+
+Tam looked up, as Arthur's utterance was choked, and a great tear fell
+on his face.  'Wha wad hae said,' murmured he, 'that a son of Burnside
+wad be greetin' for Partan Jeannie's son?'
+
+'For my best friend.  What have you not saved me from! and I can do
+nothing!'
+
+'Nay, sir.  Say but thae words again.'
+
+'Oh for a clergyman!  Or if I had a Bible to read you the promises.'
+
+'You shall have one,' said the captain, who had returned to his side.
+The surgeon muttered that the lad seemed as good as a parson; but
+Arthur heard him not, and was saying what prayers came to his mind in
+this stress, when, even as the captain returned, the last struggle came
+on.  Once more Tam looked up, saying, 'Ye'll be good to puir Fareek;'
+and with a word more, 'Oh, Christ:  will He save such as I?' all was
+over.
+
+'Come away, you can do nothing more,' said the doctor.  'You want
+looking to yourself.'
+
+For Arthur tottered as he tried to rise, and needed the captain's kind
+hand as he gained his feet.  'Sir,' he said, as the tears gushed to his
+eyes, 'he DOES deserve all honour--my only friend and deliverer.'
+
+'I see,' said Captain Beresford, much moved; 'whatever he has been, he
+died a Christian.  He shall have Christian burial.  And this fellow?'
+pointing to poor Fareek, whose grief was taking vent in moans and sobs.
+
+'Christian--Abyssinian, but dumb,' Arthur explained; and having his
+promise that all respect should be paid to poor Tam's corpse, he let
+the doctor lead him away, for he had now time to feel how sun-scorched
+and exhausted he was, with giddy, aching head, and legs cramped and
+stiff, arms strained and shoulders painful after his three days and
+nights of the boat.  His thirst, too, seemed unquenchable, in spite of
+drinks almost unconsciously taken, and though hungry he had little will
+to eat.
+
+The surgeon made him take a warm bath, and then fed him with soup,
+after which, on a promise of being called in due time, he consented to
+deposit himself in a hammock, and presently fell asleep.
+
+When he awoke he found that clothes had been provided for him--naval
+uniforms; but that could not be helped, and the comfort was great.  He
+was refreshed, but still very stiff.  However, he dressed and was just
+ready, when the surgeon came to see whether he were in condition to be
+summoned, for it was near sundown, and all hands were piped up to
+attend poor Tam's funeral rites.  His generous and faithful deed had
+eclipsed the memory that he was a renegade, and, indeed, it had been in
+such ignorance that he had had little to deny.
+
+All the sailors stood as respectfully as if he had been one of
+themselves while the captain read a portion of the Burial Office.  Such
+honours would never have been his in his native land, where at that
+time even Episcopalians themselves could not have ventured on any out-
+door rites; and Arthur was thus doubly struck and impressed, when, as
+the corpse, sewn in sail-cloth and heavily weighted, was launched into
+the blue waves, he heard the words committing the body to the deep,
+till the sea should give up her dead.  He longed to be able to
+translate them to poor Fareek, who was weeping and howling so
+inconsolably as to attest how good a master he had lost.
+
+Perhaps Tam's newly-found or recovered Christianity might have been put
+to hard shocks as to the virtues he had learnt among the Moslems.  At
+any rate Arthur often had reason to declare in after life that the poor
+renegade might have put many a better-trained Christian to shame.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X--ON BOARD THE 'CALYPSO'
+
+
+
+   'From when this youth?
+His country, name, and birth declare!'
+SCOTT.
+
+'You had forgotten this legacy, Mr. Hope,' said Captain Beresford,
+taking Arthur into his cabin, 'and, judging by its weight, it is hardly
+to be neglected.  I put it into my locker for security.'
+
+'Thank you, sir,' said Arthur.  'The question is whether I ought to
+take it.  I wished for your advice.'
+
+'I heard what passed,' said the captain.  'I should call your right as
+complete as if you had a will made by a half a dozen lawyers.  When we
+get into port, a few crowns to the ship's company to drink your health,
+and all will be right.  Will you count it?'
+
+The folds were undone, and little piles made of the gold, but neither
+the captain nor Arthur were much the wiser.  The purser might have
+computed it, but Captain Beresford did not propose this, thinking
+perhaps that it was safer that no report of a treasure should get
+abroad in the ship.
+
+He made a good many inquiries, which he had deferred till Arthur should
+be in a fitter condition for answering, first about the capture and
+wreck, and what the young man had been able to gather about the
+Cabeleyzes.  Then, as the replies showed that he had a gentleman before
+him, Captain Beresford added that he could not help asking, 'Que diable
+allait il faire dans cette galere?'
+
+'Sir,' said Arthur, 'I do not know whether you will think it your duty
+to make me a prisoner, but I had better tell you the whole truth.'
+
+'Oho!' said the captain; 'but you are too young!  You could never have
+been out with--with--we'll call him the Chevalier.'
+
+'I ran away from school,' replied Arthur, colouring.  'I was a mere
+boy, and I never was attainted,' explained Arthur, blushing.  'I have
+been with my Lord Nithsdale, and my mother thought I could safely come
+home, and that if I came from Sweden my brother could not think I
+compromised him.'
+
+'Your brother?'
+
+'Lord Burnside.  He is at Court, in favour, they say, with King George.
+He is my half-brother; my mother is a Maxwell.'
+
+'There is a Hope in garrison at Port Mahon--a captain,' said the
+captain.  'Perhaps he will advise you what to do if you are sick of
+Jacobite intrigue and mystery, and ready to serve King George.'
+
+Arthur's face lighted up.  'Will it be James Hope of Ryelands, or
+Dickie Hope of the Lynn, or--?'
+
+Captain Beresford held up his hands.
+
+'Time must show that, my young friend,' he said, smiling.  'And now I
+think the officers expect you to join their mess in the gunroom.'
+
+There Arthur found the little Chevalier strutting about in an
+adaptation of the smallest midshipman's uniform, and the centre of an
+admiring party, who were equally diverted by his consequential airs and
+by his accounts of his sports among the Moors.  Happy fellow, he could
+adapt himself to any society, and was ready to be the pet and plaything
+of the ship's company, believing himself, when he thought of anything
+beyond the present, to be full on the road to his friends again.
+
+Fareek was a much more difficult charge, for Arthur had hardly a word
+that he could understand.  He found the poor fellow coiled up in a
+corner, just where he had seen his former master's remains disappear,
+still moaning and weeping bitterly.  As Arthur called to him he looked
+up for a moment, then crawled forward, striking his forehead at
+intervals against the deck.  He was about to kiss the feet of his
+former fellow-slave, the glittering gold, blue, and white of whose
+borrowed dress no doubt impressed him.  Arthur hastily started back, to
+the amazement of the spectators, and called out a negative--one of the
+words sure to be first learnt.  He tried to take Fareek's hand and
+raise him from his abject attitude; but the poor fellow continued
+kneeling, and not only were no words available to tell him that he was
+free, but it was extremely doubtful whether freedom was any boon to
+him.  One thing, however, he did evidently understand--he pointed to
+the St. George's pennant with the red cross, made the sign, looked an
+interrogation, and on Arthur's reply, 'Christians,' and reiteration of
+the word 'Salem,' PEACE, he folded his arms and looked reassured.
+
+'Ay, ay, my hearty,' said the big boatswain, 'ye've got under the old
+flag, and we'll soon make you see the difference.  Cut out your poor
+tongue, have they, the rascals, and made a dummy of you?  I wish my cat
+was about their ears!  Come along with you, and you shall find what
+British grog is made of.'
+
+And a remarkable friendship arose between the two, the boatswain
+patronising Fareek on every occasion, and roaring at him as if he were
+deaf as well as dumb, and Fareek appearing quite confident under his
+protection, and establishing a system of signs, which were fortunately
+a universal language.  The Abyssinian evidently viewed himself as young
+Hope's servant or slave, probably thinking himself part of his late
+master's bequest, and there was no common language between them in
+which to explain the difference or ascertain the poor fellow's wishes.
+He was a slightly-made, dexterous man, probably about five and twenty
+years of age, and he caught up very quickly, by imitation, the care he
+could take of Arthur's clothes, and the habit of waiting on him at
+meals.
+
+Meantime the Calypso held her course to the south-east, till the chart
+declared the coast to be that of Djigheli Bay, and Arthur recognised
+the headlands whither the unfortunate tartane had drifted to her
+destruction.  Anchoring outside the hay, Captain Beresford sent the
+first lieutenant, Mr. Bullock, in the long-boat, with Arthur and a
+well-armed force, with instructions to offer no violence, but to
+reconnoitre; and if they found Mademoiselle de Bourke, or any others of
+the party, to do their best for their release by promises of ransom or
+representations of the consequences of detaining them.  Arthur was
+prepared to offer his own piastres at once in case of need of immediate
+payment.  He was by this time tolerably versed in the vernacular of the
+Mediterranean, and a cook's boy, shipped at Gibraltar, was also
+supposed to be capable of interpreting.
+
+The beautiful bay, almost realising the description of AEneas' landing-
+place, lay before them, the still green waters within reflecting the
+fantastic rocks and the wreaths of verdure which crowned them, while
+the white mountain-tops rose like clouds in the far distance against
+the azure sky.  Arthur could only, however, think of all this fair
+scene as a cruel prison, and those sharp rocks as the jaws of a trap,
+when he saw the ribs of the tartane still jammed into the rock where
+she had struck, and where he had saved the two children as they were
+washed up the hatchway.  He saw the rock where the other three had
+clung, and where he had left the little girl.  He remembered the crowd
+of howling, yelling savages, leaping and gesticulating on the beach,
+and his heart trembled as he wondered how it had ended.
+
+Where were the Cabeleyzes who had thus greeted them?  The bay seemed
+perfectly lonely.  Not a sound was to be heard but the regular dip of
+the oars, the cry of a startled bird, and the splash of a flock of
+seals, which had been sunning themselves on the shore, and which
+floundered into the sea like Proteus' flock of yore before Ulysses.
+Would that Proteus himself had still been there to be captured and
+interrogated!  For the place was so entirely deserted that, saving for
+the remains of the wreck, he must have believed himself mistaken in the
+locality, and the lieutenant began to question him whether it had been
+daylight when he came ashore.
+
+Could the natives have hidden themselves at sight of an armed vessel?
+Mr. Bullock resolved on landing, very cautiously, and with a sufficient
+guard.  On the shore some fragments of broken boxes and packing cases
+appeared; and a sailor pointed out the European lettering painted on
+one--sse de B-.  It plainly was part of the address to the Comtesse de
+Bourke.  This encouraged the party in their search.  They ascended the
+path which poor Hebert and Lanty Callaghan had so often painfully
+climbed, and found themselves before the square of reed hovels, also
+deserted, but with black marks where fires had been lighted, and with
+traces of recent habitation.
+
+Arthur picked up a rag of the Bourke livery, and another of a brocade
+which he had seen the poor Countess wearing.  Was this all the relic
+that he should ever be able to take to her husband?
+
+He peered about anxiously in hopes of discovering further tokens, and
+Mr. Bullock was becoming impatient of his lingering, when suddenly his
+eye was struck by a score on the bark of a chestnut tree like a cross,
+cut with a feeble hand.  Beneath, close to the trunk, was a stone,
+beyond the corner of which appeared a bit of paper.  He pounced upon
+it.  It was the title-page of Estelle's precious Telemaque, and on the
+back was written in French, If any good Christian ever finds this, I
+pray him to carry it to M. the French Consul at Algiers.  We are five
+poor prisoners, the Abbe de St. Eudoce, Estelle, daughter of the Comte
+de Bourke, and our servants, Jacques Hebert, Laurent Callaghan,
+Victorine Renouf.  The Cabeleyzes are taking us away to their
+mountains.  We are in slavery, in hunger, filth, and deprivation of all
+things.  We pray day and night that the good God will send some one to
+rescue us, for we are in great misery, and they persecute us to make us
+deny our faith.  O, whoever you may be, come and deliver us while we
+are yet alive.'
+
+Arthur was almost choked with tears as he translated this piteous
+letter to the lieutenant, and recollected the engaging, enthusiastic
+little maiden, as he had seen her on the Rhone, but now brought to such
+a state.  He implored Mr. Bullock to pursue the track up the mountain,
+and was grieved at this being treated as absurdly impossible, but then
+recollecting himself, 'You could not, sir, but I might follow her and
+make them understand that she must be saved--'
+
+'And give them another captive,' said Bullock; 'I thought you had had
+enough of that.  You will do more good to this flame of yours--'
+
+'No flame, sir.  She is a mere child, little older than her brother.
+But she must not remain among these lawless savages.'
+
+'No!  But we don't throw the helve after the hatchet, my lad!  All you
+can do is to take this epistle to the French Consul, who might find it
+hard to understand without your explanations.  At any rate, my orders
+are to bring you safe on board again.'
+
+Arthur had no choice but to submit, and Captain Beresford, who had a
+wife and children at home, was greatly touched by the sight of the
+childish writing of the poor little motherless girl; above all when
+Arthur explained that the high-sounding title of Abbe de St. Eudoce
+only meant one who was more likely to be a charge than a help to her.
+
+France was for the nonce allied with England, and the dread of passing
+to Sweden through British seas had apparently been quite futile, since,
+if Captain Beresford recollected the Irish blood of the Count, it was
+only as an additional cause for taking interest in him.  Towards the
+Moorish pirates the interest of the two nations united them.  It was
+intolerable to think of the condition of the captives; and the captain,
+anxious to lose no time, rejoiced that his orders were such as to
+justify him in sailing at once for Algiers to take effectual measures
+with the consul before letting the family know the situation of the
+poor Demoiselle de Bourke.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI--THE PIRATE CITY
+
+
+
+'With dazed vision unawares
+From the long alley's latticed shade
+Emerged, I came upon the great
+Pavilion of the Caliphat.
+Right to the carven cedarn doors,
+Flung inward over spangled floors,
+Broad-based flights of marble stairs
+Ran up with golden balustrade,
+   After the fashion of the time,
+   And humour of the golden prime
+      Of good Haroun Alraschid.'
+TENNYSON.
+
+Civilised and innocuous existence has no doubt been a blessing to
+Algiers as well as to the entire Mediterranean, but it has not improved
+the picturesqueness of its aspect any more than the wild and splendid
+'tiger, tiger burning bright,' would be more ornamental with his claws
+pared, the fiery gleam of his yellow eyes quenched, and his spirit
+tamed, so as to render him only an exaggerated domestic cat.  The
+steamer, whether of peace or war, is a melancholy substitute for the
+splendid though sinister galley, with her ranks of oars and towers of
+canvas, or for the dainty lateen-sailed vessels, skimming the waters
+like flying fish, and the Frank garb ill replaces the graceful Arab
+dress.  The Paris-like block of houses ill replaces the graceful
+Moorish architecture, undisturbed when the Calypso sailed into the
+harbour, and the amphitheatre-like city rose before her, in successive
+terraces of dazzling white, interspersed with palms and other trees
+here and there, with mosques and minarets rising above them, and with a
+crown of strong fortifications.  The harbour itself was protected by a
+strongly-fortified mole, and some parley passed with the governor of
+the strong and grim-looking castle adjacent--a huge round tower erected
+by the Spaniards, and showing three ranks of brazen teeth in the shape
+of guns.
+
+Finally, the Algerines having been recently brought to their bearings,
+as Captain Beresford said, entrance was permitted, and the Calypso
+enjoyed the shelter of the mole; while he, in full-dress uniform, took
+boat and went ashore, and with him the two escaped prisoners.  Fareek
+remained on board till the English Consul could be consulted on his
+fate.
+
+England and France were on curious terms with Algiers.  The French had
+bombarded the city in 1686, and had obtained a treaty by which a consul
+constantly resided in the city, and the persons and property of French
+subjects were secured from piracy, or if captured were always released.
+The English had made use of the possession of Gibraltar and Minorca to
+enforce a like treaty.  There was a little colony of European
+merchants--English, French, and Dutch--in the lower town, near the
+harbour, above which the Arab town rose, as it still rises, in a steep
+stair.  Ships of all these nations traded at the port, and quite
+recently the English Consul, Thomas Thompson by name, had vindicated
+the honour of his flag by citing before the Dey a man who had insulted
+him on the narrow causeway of the mole.  The Moor was sentenced to
+receive 2200 strokes of bastinado on the feet, 1000 the first day, 1200
+on the second, and he died in consequence, so that Englishmen safely
+walked the narrow streets.  The Dey who had inflicted this punishment
+was, however, lately dead.  Mehemed had been elected and installed by
+the chief Janissaries, and it remained to be proved whether he would
+show himself equally anxious to be on good terms with the Christian
+Powers.
+
+Arthur's heart had learnt to beat at sight of the British ensign with
+emotions very unlike those with which he had seen it wave at
+Sheriffmuir; but it looked strange above the low walls of a Moorish
+house, plain outside, but with a richly cusped and painted horse-shoe
+arch at the entrance to a lovely cloistered court, with a sparkling
+fountain surrounded by orange trees with fruit of all shades from green
+to gold.  Servants in white garments and scarlet fezzes, black, brown,
+or white (by courtesy), seemed to swarm in all directions; and one of
+them called a youth in European garb, but equally dark-faced with the
+rest, and not too good an English scholar.  However, he conducted them
+through a still more beautiful court, lined with brilliant mosaics in
+the spandrels of the exquisite arches supported on slender shining
+marble columns.
+
+Mr. Thompson's English coat and hearty English face looked incongruous,
+as at sight of the blue and white uniform he came forward with all the
+hospitable courtesy due to a post-captain.  There was shaking of hands,
+and doffing of cocked hats, and calling for wine, and pipes, and
+coffee, in the Alhambra-like hall, where a table covered with papers
+tied with red tape, in front of a homely leathern chair, looked more
+homelike than suitable.  Other chairs there were for Frank guests, who
+preferred them to the divan and piles of cushions on which the Moors
+transacted business.
+
+'What can I do for you, sir?' he asked of the captain, 'or for this
+little master,' he added, looking at Ulysse, who was standing by
+Arthur.  'He is serving the King early.'
+
+'I don't belong to your King George,' broke out the young gentleman.
+'He is an usurpateur.  I have only this uniform on till I can get my
+proper clothes.  I am the son of the Comte de Bourke, Ambassador to
+Spain and Sweden.  I serve no one but King Louis!'
+
+'That is plain to be seen!' said Mr. Thompson.  'The Gallic cock crows
+early.  But is he indeed the son of Count Bourke, about whom the French
+Consul has been in such trouble?'
+
+'Even so, sir,' replied the captain.  'I am come to ask you to present
+him, with this gentleman, Mr. Hope, to your French colleague.  Mr.
+Hope, to whom the child's life and liberty are alike owing, has
+information to give which may lead to the rescue of the boy's sister
+and uncle with their servants.'
+
+Mr. Thompson had heard of a Moorish galley coming in with an account of
+having lost a Genoese prize, with ladies on board, in the late storm.
+He was sure that the tidings Mr. Hope brought would be most welcome,
+but he knew that the French Consul was gone up with a distinguished
+visitor, M. Dessault, for an audience of the Dey; and, in the meantime,
+his guests must dine with him.  And Arthur narrated his adventures.
+
+The Consul shook his head when he heard of Djigheli Bay.
+
+'Those fellows, the Cabeleyzes, hate the French, and make little enough
+of the Dey, though they do send home Moors who fall into their hands.
+Did you see a ruined fort on a promontory?  That was the Bastion de
+France.  The old King Louis put it up and garrisoned it, but these
+rogues contrived a surprise, and made four hundred prisoners, and ever
+since they have been neither to have nor to hold.  Well for you, young
+gentleman, that you did not fall into their hands, but those of the
+country Moors--very decent folk--descended, they say, from the Spanish
+Moors.  A renegade got you off, did he?  Yes, they will sometimes do
+that, though at an awful risk.  If they are caught, they are hung up
+alive on hooks to the walls.  You had an escape, I can tell you, and so
+had he, poor fellow, of being taken alive.'
+
+'He knew the risk!' said Arthur, in a low voice; 'but my mother had
+once been good to him, and he dared everything for me.'
+
+The Consul readily estimated Arthur's legacy as amounting to little
+less than 200 pounds, and was also ready to give him bills of exchange
+for it.  The next question was as to Fareek.  To return him to his own
+country was impossible; and though the Consul offered to buy him of
+Arthur, not only did the young Scot revolt at the idea of making
+traffic of the faithful fellow, but Mr. Thompson owned that there might
+be some risk in Algiers of his being recognised as a runaway; and
+though this was very slight, it was better not to give any cause of
+offence.  Captain Beresford thought the poor man might be disposed of
+at Port Mahon, and Arthur kept to himself that Tam's bequest was sacred
+to him.  His next wish was for clothes to which he might have a better
+right than to the uniform of the senior midshipman of H.M.S. Calypso--a
+garb in which he did not like to appear before the French Consul.  Mr.
+Thompson consulted his Greek clerk, and a chest belonging to a captured
+merchantman, which had been claimed as British property, but had not
+found an owner, was opened, and proved to contain a wardrobe sufficient
+to equip Arthur like other gentlemen of the day, in a dark crimson
+coat, with a little gold lace about it, and the rest of the dress
+white, a wide beaver hat, looped up with a rosette, and everything,
+indeed, except shoes, and he was obliged to retain those of the senior
+midshipman.  With his dark hair tied back, and a suspicion of powder,
+he found himself more like the youth whom Lady Nithsdale had introduced
+in Madame de Varennes' salon than he had felt for the last month; and,
+moreover, his shyness and awkwardness had in great measure disappeared
+during his vicissitudes, and he had made many steps towards manhood.
+
+Ulysse had in the meantime been consigned to a kind, motherly, portly
+Mrs. Thompson, who, accustomed as she was to hearing of strange
+adventures, was aghast at what the child had undergone, and was
+enchanted with the little French gentleman who spoke English so well,
+and to whom his Grand Seigneur airs returned by instinct in contact
+with a European lady; but his eye instantly sought Arthur, nor would he
+be content without a seat next to his protector at the dinner, early as
+were all dinners then, and a compound of Eastern and Western dishes,
+the latter very welcome to the travellers, and affording the Consul's
+wife themes of discourse on her difficulties in compounding them.
+
+Pipes, siesta, and coffee followed, Mr. Thompson assuring them that his
+French colleague would not be ready to receive them till after the like
+repose had been undergone, and that he had already sent a billet to
+announce their coming.
+
+ The French Consulate was not distant.  The fleur-de-lis waved over a
+house similar to Mr. Thompson's, but they were admitted with greater
+ceremony, when Mr. Thompson at length conducted them.  Servants and
+slaves, brown and black, clad in white with blue sashes, and white
+officials in blue liveries, were drawn up in the first court in two
+lines to receive them; and the Chevalier, taking it all to himself,
+paraded in front with the utmost grandeur, until, at the next archway,
+two gentlemen, resplendent in gold lace, came forward with low bows.
+At sight of the little fellow there were cries of joy.  M. Dessault
+spread out his arms, clasped the child to his breast, and shed tears
+over him, so that the less emotional Englishmen thought at first that
+they must be kinsmen.  However, Arthur came in for a like embrace as
+the boy's preserver; and if Captain Beresford had not stepped back and
+looked uncomprehending and rigid he might have come in for the same.
+
+Seated in the verandah, Arthur told his tale and presented the letter,
+over which there were more tears, as, indeed, well there might be over
+the condition of the little girl and her simple mode of describing it.
+It was nearly a month since the corsair had arrived, and the story of
+the Genoese tartane being captured and lost with French ladies on board
+had leaked out.  The French Consul had himself seen and interrogated
+the Dutch renegade captain, had become convinced of the identity of the
+unfortunate passengers, and had given up all hopes of them, so that he
+greeted the boy as one risen from the dead.
+
+To know that the boy's sister and uncle were still in the hands of the
+Cabeleyzes was almost worse news than the death of his mother, for this
+wild Arab tribe had a terrible reputation even among the Moors and
+Turks.
+
+The only thing that could be devised after consultation between the two
+consuls, the French envoy, and the English captain, was that an
+audience should be demanded of the Dey, and Estelle's letter presented
+the next morning.  Meanwhile Arthur and Ulysse were to remain as guests
+at the English Consulate.  The French one would have made them welcome,
+but there was no lady in his house; and Mrs. Thompson had given Arthur
+a hint that his little charge would be the better for womanly care.
+
+There was further consultation whether young Hope, as a runaway slave--
+who had, however, carried off a relapsed renegade with him--would be
+safe on shore beyond the precincts of the Consulate; but as no one had
+any claim on him, and it might be desirable to have his evidence at
+hand, it was thought safe that he should remain, and Captain Beresford
+promised to come ashore in the morning to join the petitioners to the
+Dey.
+
+Perhaps he was not sorry, any more than was Arthur, for the opportunity
+of beholding the wonderful city and palace, which were like a dream of
+beauty.  He came ashore early, with two or three officers, all in full
+uniform; and the audience having been granted, the whole party--
+consuls, M. Dessault, and their attendants--mounted the steep, narrow
+stone steps leading up the hill between the walls of houses with
+fantastically carved doorways or lattices; while bare-legged Arabs
+niched themselves into every coigne of vantage with baskets of fruit or
+eggs, or else embroidering pillows and slippers with exquisite taste.
+
+The beauty of the buildings was unspeakable, and they projected enough
+to make a cool shade--only a narrow fragment of deep blue sky being
+visible above them.  The party did not, however, ascend the whole 497
+steps, as the abode of the Dey was then not the citadel, but the palace
+of Djenina in the heart of the city.  Turning aside, they made their
+way thither over terraces partly in the rock, partly on the roofs of
+houses.
+
+Fierce-looking Janissaries, splendidly equipped, guarded the entrance,
+with an air so proud and consequential as to remind Arthur of poor
+Yusuf's assurances of the magnificence that might await little Ulysse
+as an Aga of that corps.  Even as they admitted the infidels they
+looked defiance at them from under the manifold snowy folds of their
+mighty turbans.
+
+If the beauty of the consuls' houses had struck and startled Arthur,
+far more did the region into which he was now admitted seem like a
+dream of fairyland as he passed through ranks of orange trees round
+sparkling fountains--worthy of Versailles itself--courts surrounded
+with cloisters, sparkling with priceless mosaics, in those brilliant
+colours which Eastern taste alone can combine so as to avoid gaudiness,
+arches and columns of ineffable grace and richness, halls with domes
+emulating the sky, or else ceiled with white marble lacework, whose
+tracery seemed delicate and varied as the richest Venice point!  But
+the wonderful beauty seemed to him to have in it something terrible and
+weird, like that fairyland of his native country, whose glory and charm
+is overshadowed by the knowledge of the teinds to be paid to hell.  It
+was an unnatural, incomprehensible world; and from longing to admire
+and examine, he only wished to be out of it, felt it a relief to fix
+his eyes upon the uniforms of the captain and the consuls, and did not
+wonder that Ulysse, instead of proudly heading the procession, shrank
+up to him and clasped his hand as his protector.
+
+The human figures were as strange as the architecture; the glittering
+of Janissaries in the outer court, which seemed a sort of guardroom,
+the lines of those on duty in the next, and in the third court the
+black slaves in white garments, enhancing the blackness of their limbs,
+each with a formidable curved scimitar.  At the golden cusped archway
+beyond, all had to remove their shoes as though entering a mosque.  The
+Consuls bade the new-comers submit to this, adding that it was only
+since the recent victory that it had not been needful to lay aside the
+sword on entering the Dey's august presence.  The chamber seemed to the
+eyes of the strangers one web of magic splendour--gold-crusted lacework
+above, arches on one side open to a beauteous garden, and opposite
+semicircles of richly-robed Janissary officers, all culminating in a
+dazzling throne, where sat a white-turbaned figure, before whom the
+visitors all had to bow lower than European independence could well
+brook.
+
+The Dey's features were not very distinctly seen at the distance where
+etiquette required them to stand; but Arthur thought him hardly worthy
+to be master of such fine-looking beings as Abou Ben Zegri and many
+others of the Moors, being in fact a little sturdy Turk, with Tartar
+features, not nearly so graceful as the Moors and Arabs, nor so
+handsome and imposing as the Janissaries of Circassian blood.  Turkish
+was the court language; and even if he understood any other, an
+interpreter was a necessary part of the etiquette.  M. Dessault
+instructed the interpreter, who understood with a readiness which
+betrayed that he was one of the many renegades in the Algerine service.
+
+The Dey was too dignified to betray much emotion; but he spoke a few
+words, and these were understood to profess his willingness to assist
+in the matter.  A richly-clad official, who was, Mr. Thompson
+whispered, a Secretary of State, came to attend the party in a smaller
+but equally beautiful room, where pipes and coffee were served, and a
+consultation took place with the two Consuls, which was, of course,
+incomprehensible to the anxious listeners.  M. Dessault's interest was
+deeply concerned in the matter, since he was a connection of the
+Varennes family, to which poor Madame de Bourke belonged.
+
+Commands from the Dey, it was presently explained, would be utterly
+disregarded by these wild mountaineers--nay, would probably lead to the
+murder of the captives in defiance.  But it was known that if these
+wild beings paid deference to any one, it was to the Grand Marabout at
+Bugia; and the Secretary promised to send a letter in the Dey's name,
+which, with a considerable present, might induce him to undertake the
+negotiation.  Therewith the audience terminated, after M. Dessault had
+laid a splendid diamond snuff-box at the feet of the Secretary.
+
+The Consuls were somewhat disgusted at the notion of having recourse to
+the Marabouts, whom the French Consul called vilains charlatan, and the
+English one filthy scoundrels and impostors.  Like the Indian Fakirs,
+opined Captain Beresford; like the begging friars, said M. Dessault,
+and to this the Consuls assented.  Just, however, as the Dominicans,
+besides the low class of barefooted friars, had a learned and
+cultivated set of brethren in high repute at the Universities, and a
+general at Rome, so it appeared that the Marabouts, besides their wild
+crew of masterful beggars, living at free quarters, partly through
+pretended sanctity, partly through the awe inspired by cabalistic arts,
+had a higher class who dwelt in cities, and were highly esteemed, for
+the sake of either ten years' abstinence from food or the attainment of
+fifty sciences, by one or other of which means an angelic nature was
+held to be attained.
+
+Fifty sciences!  This greatly astonished the strangers, but they were
+told by the residents that all the knowledge of the highly cultivated
+Arabs of Bagdad and the Moors of Spain had been handed on to the select
+few of their African descendants, and that really beautiful poetry was
+still produced by the Marabouts.  Certainly no one present could doubt
+of the architectural skill and taste of the Algerines, and Mr. Thompson
+declared that not a tithe of the wonders of their mechanical art had
+been seen, describing the wonderful silver tree of Tlemcen, covered
+with birds, who, by the action of wind, were made to produce the songs
+of each different species which they represented, till a falcon on the
+topmost branch uttered a harsh cry, and all became silent.  General
+education had, however, fallen to a low ebb among the population, and
+the wisdom of the ancients was chiefly concentrated among the higher
+class of Marabouts, whose headquarters were at Bugia, and their present
+chief, Hadji Eseb Ben Hassan, had the reputation of a saint, which the
+Consuls believed to be well founded.
+
+The Cabeleyzes, though most irregular Moslems, were extremely
+superstitious as regarded the supernatural arts supposed to be
+possessed by the Marabouts, and if these could be induced to take up
+the cause of the prisoners, there would be at least some chance of
+their success.
+
+And not long after the party had arrived at the French Consulate, where
+they were to dine, a messenger arrived with a parcel rolled up in silk,
+embroidered with gold, and containing a strip of paper beautifully
+emblazoned, and in Turkish characters.  The Consul read it, and found
+it to be a really strong recommendation to the Marabout to do his
+utmost for the servants of the Dey's brother, the King of France, now
+in the hands of the children of Shaitan.
+
+'Well purchased,' said M. Dessault; 'though that snuff-box came from
+the hands of the Elector of Bavaria!'
+
+As soon as the meal was over, the French Consul, instead of taking his
+siesta as usual, began to take measures for chartering a French tartane
+to go to Bugia immediately.  He found there was great interest excited,
+not only among the Christian merchants, but among Turks, Moors, and
+Jews, so horrible was the idea of captivity among the Cabeleyzes.  The
+Dey set the example of sending down five purses of sequins towards the
+young lady's ransom, and many more contributions came in unasked.  It
+was true that the bearers expected no small consideration in return,
+but this was willingly given, and the feeling manifested was a perfect
+astonishment to all the friends at the Consulate.
+
+The French national interpreter, Ibrahim Aga, was charged with the
+negotiations with the Marabout.  Arthur entreated to go with him, and
+with some hesitation this was agreed to, since the sight of an old
+friend might be needed to reassure any survivors of the poor captives--
+for it was hardly thought possible that all could still survive the
+hardships of the mountains in the depth of winter, even if they were
+spared by the ferocity of their captors.
+
+Ulysse, the little son and heir, was not to be exposed to the perils of
+the seas till his sister's fate was decided, and accordingly he was to
+remain under the care of Mrs. Thompson; while Captain Beresford meant
+to cruise about in the neighbourhood, having a great desire to know the
+result of the enterprise, and hoping also that if Mademoiselle de
+Bourke still lived he might be permitted to restore her to her
+relations.  Letters, clothes, and comforts were provided, and placed
+under the charge of the interpreter and of Arthur, together with a
+considerable gratuity for the Marabout, and authority for any ransom
+that Cabeleyze rapacity might require,--still, however, with great
+doubt whether all might not be too late.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII--ON THE MOUNTAINS
+
+
+
+'We cannot miss him.  He doth make our fire,
+Fetch in our wood, and serve in offices
+That profit us.'  Tempest.
+
+Bugia, though midway on the 'European lake,' is almost unknown to
+modern travellers, though it has become a French possession.
+
+It looked extremely beautiful when the French tartane entered it,
+rising from the sea like a magnificent amphitheatre, at the foot of the
+mountains that circled round it, and guarded by stern battlemented
+castles, while the arches of one of the great old Roman aqueducts made
+a noble cord to the arc described by the lower part of the town.
+
+The harbour, a finer one naturally than that of Algiers, contained
+numerous tartanes and other vessels, for, as Ibrahim Aga, who could
+talk French very well, informed Arthur, the inhabitants were good
+workers in iron, and drove a trade in plough-shares and other
+implements, besides wax and oil.  But it was no resort of Franks, and
+he insisted that Arthur should only come on shore in a Moorish dress,
+which had been provided at Algiers.  Thanks to young Hope's naturally
+dark complexion, and the exposure of the last month, he might very well
+pass for a Moor:  and he had learnt to wear the white caftan, wide
+trousers, broad sash, and scarlet fez, circled with muslin, so
+naturally that he was not likely to be noticed as a European.
+
+The city, in spite of its external beauty, proved to be ruinous within,
+and in the midst of the Moorish houses and courts still were visible
+remnants of the old Roman town that had in past ages flourished there.
+Like Algiers, it had narrow climbing streets, excluding sunshine, and
+through these the guide Ibrahim had secured led the way; while in
+single file came the interpreter, Arthur, two black slaves bearing
+presents for the Marabout, and four men besides as escort.  Once or
+twice there was a vista down a broader space, with an awning over it,
+where selling and buying were going on, always of some single species
+of merchandise.
+
+Thus they arrived at one of those Moorish houses, to whose beauty
+Arthur was becoming accustomed.  It had, however, a less luxurious and
+grave aspect than the palaces of Algiers, and the green colour sacred
+to the Prophet prevailed in the inlaid work, which Ibrahim Aga told him
+consisted chiefly of maxims from the Koran.
+
+No soldiers were on guard, but there were a good many young men wholly
+clad in white--neophytes endeavouring to study the fifty sciences,
+mostly sitting on the ground, writing copies, either of the sacred
+books, or of the treatises on science and medicine which had descended
+from time almost immemorial; all rehearsed aloud what they learnt or
+wrote, so as to produce a strange hum.  A grave official, similarly
+clad, but with a green sash, came to meet them, and told them that the
+chief Marabout was sick; but on hearing from the interpreter that they
+were bearers of a letter from the Dey, he went back with the
+intelligence, and presently returned salaaming very low, to introduce
+them to another of the large halls with lacework ceilings, where it was
+explained that the Grand Marabout was, who was suffering from ague.
+The fit was passing off, and he would be able to attend of the coffee
+and the pipes which were presented to his honoured guests so soon as
+they had partaken them.
+
+After a delay, very trying to Arthur's anxiety, though beguiled by such
+coffee and tobacco as he was never likely to encounter again, Hadji
+Eseb Ben Hassan, a venerable-looking man, appeared, with a fine white
+beard and keen eyes, slenderly formed, and with an air of very
+considerable ability--much more so than the Dey, in all his glittering
+splendour of gold, jewels, and embroidery, whereas this old man wore
+the pure white woollen garments of the Moor, with the green sash, and
+an emerald to fasten the folds of his white turban.
+
+Ibrahim Aga prostrated himself as if before the Dey, and laid before
+the Marabout, as a first gift, a gold watch; then, after a blessing had
+been given in return, he produced with great ceremony the Dey's letter,
+to which every one in the apartment did obeisance by touching the floor
+with their foreheads, and the Grand Marabout further rubbed it on his
+brow before proceeding to read it, which he chose to do for himself,
+chanting it out in a low, humming voice.  It was only a recommendation,
+and the other letter was from the French Consul containing all
+particulars.  The Marabout seemed much startled, and interrogated the
+interpreter.  Arthur could follow them in some degree, and presently
+the keen eye of the old man seemed to detect his interest, for there
+was a pointing to him, an explanation that he had been there, and
+presently Hadji Eseb addressed a question to him in the vernacular
+Arabic.  He understood and answered, but the imperfect language or his
+looks betrayed him, for Hadji Eseb demanded, 'Thou art Frank, my son?'
+
+Ibrahim Aga, mortally afraid of the consequences of having brought a
+disguised Giaour into these sacred precincts, began what Arthur
+perceived to be a lying assurance of his having embraced Islam; and he
+was on the point of breaking in upon the speech, when the Marabout
+observed his gesture, and said gravely, 'My son, falsehood is not
+needed to shield a brave Christian; a faithful worshipper of Issa Ben
+Mariam receives honour if he does justice and works righteousness
+according to his own creed, even though he be blind to the true faith.
+Is it true, good youth, that thou art--not as this man would have me
+believe--one of the crew from Algiers, but art come to strive for the
+release of thy sister?'
+
+Arthur gave the history as best he could, for his month's practice had
+made him able to speak the vernacular so as to be fairly
+comprehensible, and the Marabout, who was evidently a man of very high
+abilities, often met him half way, and suggested the word at which he
+stumbled.  He was greatly touched by the account, even in the imperfect
+manner in which the youth could give it; and there was no doubt that he
+was a man of enlarged mind and beneficence, who had not only mastered
+the fifty sciences, but had seen something of the world.
+
+He had not only made his pilgrimage to Mecca more than once, but had
+been at Constantinople, and likewise at Tunis and Tripoli; thus, with
+powers both acute and awake, he understood more than his countrymen of
+European Powers and their relation to one another.  As a civilised and
+cultivated man, he was horrified at the notion of the tenderly-nurtured
+child being in the clutches of savages like the Cabeleyzes; but the
+first difficulty was to find out where she was; for, as he said,
+pointing towards the mountains, they were a wide space, and it would be
+hunting a partridge on the hills.
+
+Looking at his chief councillor, Azim Reverdi, he demanded whether some
+of the wanderers of their order, whom he named, could not be sent
+through the mountains to discover where any such prisoners might be;
+but after going into the court in quest of these persons, Azim returned
+with tidings that a Turkish soldier had returned on the previous day to
+the town, and had mentioned that on Mount Couco, Sheyk Abderrahman was
+almost at war with his subordinates, Eyoub and Ben Yakoub, about some
+shipwrecked Frank captives, if they had not already settled the matter
+by murdering them all, and, as was well known, nothing would persuade
+this ignorant, lawless tribe that nothing was more abhorrent to the
+Prophet than human sacrifices.
+
+Azim had already sent two disciples to summon the Turk to the presence
+of the Grand Marabout, and in due time he appeared--a rough, heavy,
+truculent fellow enough, but making awkward salaams as one in great awe
+of the presence in which he stood--unwilling awe perhaps--full of
+superstitious fear tempered by pride--for the haughty Turks revolted
+against homage to one of the subject race of Moors.
+
+His language was only now and then comprehensible to Arthur, but
+Ibrahim kept up a running translation into French for his benefit.
+
+There were captives--infidels--saved from the wreck, he knew not how
+many, but he was sure of one--a little maid with hair like the unwound
+cocoon, so that they called her the Daughter of the Silkworm.  It was
+about her that the chief struggle was.  She had fallen to the lot of
+Ben Yakoub, who had been chestnut-gathering by the sea at the time of
+the wreck; but when he arrived on Mount Couco the Sheyk Abderrahman had
+claimed her and hers as the head of the tribe, and had carried her off
+to his own adowara in the valley of Ein Gebel.
+
+The Turk, Murad, had been induced by Yakoub to join him and sixteen
+more armed men whom he had got together to demand her.  For it was he
+who had rescued her from the waves, carried her up the mountains, fed
+her all this time, and he would not have her snatched away from him,
+though for his part Murad thought it would have been well to be quit of
+them, for not only were they Giaours, but he verily believed them to be
+of the race of Jinns.  The little fair-haired maid had papers with
+strange signs on them.  She wrote--actually wrote--a thing that he
+believed no Sultana Velide even had ever been known to do at Stamboul.
+Moreover, she twisted strings about on her hands in a manner that was
+fearful to look at.  It was said to be only to amuse the children, but
+for his part he believed it was for some evil spell.  What was certain
+was that the other, a woman full grown, could, whenever any one
+offended her, raise a Jinn in a cloud of smoke, which caused such
+sneezing that she was lost sight of.  And yet these creatures had so
+bewitched their captors that there were like to be hard blows before
+they were disposed of, unless his advice were taken to make an end of
+them altogether.  Indeed, two of the men, the mad Santon and the chief
+slave, had been taken behind a bush to be sacrificed, when the Daughter
+of the Silkworm came between with her incantations, and fear came upon
+Sheyk Yakoub.  Murad evidently thought it highly advisable that the
+chief Marabout should intervene to put a stop to these doings, and
+counteract the mysterious influence exercised by these strange beings.
+
+ High time, truly, Arthur and Ibrahim Aga likewise felt it, to go to
+the rescue, since terror and jealousy might, it appeared, at any time
+impel ces barbares feroces, as Ibrahim called them, to slaughter their
+prisoners.  To their great joy, the Marabout proved to be of the same
+opinion, in spite of his sickness, which, being an intermitting ague,
+would leave him free for a couple of days, and might be driven off by
+the mountain air.  He promised to set forth early the next day, and
+kept the young man and the interpreter as his guests for the night,
+Ibrahim going first on board to fetch the parcel of clothes and
+provisions which M. Dessault had sent for the Abbe and Mademoiselle de
+Bourke, and for an instalment of the ransom, which the Hadji Eseb
+assured him might safely be carried under his own sacred protection.
+
+Arthur did not see much of his host, who seemed to be very busy
+consulting with his second in command on the preparations, for probably
+the expedition was a delicate undertaking, even for him, and his
+companions had to be carefully chosen.
+
+Ibrahim had advised Arthur to stay quietly where he was, and not
+venture into the city, and he spent his time as he best might by the
+help of a narghile, which was hospitably presented to him, though the
+strictness of Marabout life forbade the use alike of tobacco and
+coffee.
+
+Before dawn the courts of the house were astir.  Mules, handsomely
+trapped, were provided to carry the principal persons of the party
+wherever it might be possible, and there were some spare ones, ridden
+at first by inferiors, but intended for the captives, should they be
+recovered.
+
+It was very cold, being the last week in November, and all were wrapped
+in heavy woollen haiks over their white garments, except one wild-
+looking fellow, whose legs and arms were bare, and who only seemed to
+possess one garment of coarse dark sackcloth.  He skipped and ran by
+the side of the mules, chanting and muttering, and Ibrahim observed in
+French that he was one of the Sunakites, or fanatic Marabouts, and
+advised Arthur to beware of him; but, though dangerous in himself, his
+presence would be a sufficient protection from all other thieves or
+vagabonds.  Indeed, Arthur saw the fellow glaring unpleasantly at him,
+when the sun summoned all the rest to their morning devotions.  He was
+glad that he had made the fact of his Christianity known, for he could
+no more act Moslem than BE one, and Hadji Eseb kept the Sunakite in
+check by a stern glance, so that no harm ensued.
+
+Afterwards Arthur was bidden to ride near the chief, who talked a good
+deal, asking intelligent questions.  Gibraltar had impressed him
+greatly, and it also appeared that in one of his pilgrimages the
+merchant vessel he was in had been rescued from some Albanian pirates
+by an English ship, which held the Turks as allies, and thus saved them
+from undergoing vengeance for the sufferings of the Greeks.  Thus the
+good old man felt that he owed a debt of gratitude which Allah required
+him to pay, even to the infidel.
+
+Up steep roads the mules climbed.  The first night the halt was at a
+Cabyle village, where hospitality was eagerly offered to persons of
+such high reputation for sanctity as the Marabouts; but afterwards
+habitations grew more scanty as the ground rose higher, and there was
+no choice but to encamp in the tents brought by the attendants, and
+which seemed to Arthur a good exchange for the dirty Cabyle huts.
+
+Altogether the journey took six days.  The mules climbed along wild
+paths on the verge of giddy precipices, where even on foot Arthur would
+have hesitated to venture.  The scenery would now be thought
+magnificent, but it was simply frightful to the mind of the early
+eighteenth century, especially when a constant watch had to be kept to
+avoid the rush of stones, or avalanches, on an almost imperceptible,
+nearly perpendicular path, where it was needful to trust to the
+guidance of the Sunakite, the only one of the cavalcade who had been
+there before.
+
+On the last day they found themselves on the borders of a slope of
+pines and other mountain-growing trees, bordering a wide valley or
+ravine where the Sunakite hinted that Abderrahman might be found.
+
+The cavalcade pursued a path slightly indicated by the treading of feet
+and hoofs, and presently there emerged on them from a slighter side
+track between the red stems of the great pines a figure nearly bent
+double under the weight of two huge faggots, with a basket of great
+solid fir-cones on the top of them.  Very scanty garments seemed to be
+vouchsafed to him, and the bare arms and legs were so white, as well as
+of a length so unusual among Arabs or Moors, that simultaneously the
+Marabout exclaimed, 'One of the Giaour captives,' and Arthur cried out,
+'La Jeunesse!  Laurence!'
+
+There was only just time for a start and a response, 'M. Arture!  And
+is it yourself?' before a howl of vituperation was heard--of abuse of
+all the ancestry of the cur of an infidel slave, the father of
+tardiness--and a savage-looking man appeared, brandishing a cudgel,
+with which he was about to belabour his unfortunate slave, when he was
+arrested by astonishment, and perhaps terror, at the goodly company of
+Marabouts.  Hadji Eseb entered into conversation with him, and
+meanwhile Lanty broke forth, 'O wirrah, wirrah, Master Arthur! an' have
+they made a haythen Moor of ye?  By the powers, but this is worse than
+all.  What will Mademoiselle say?--she that has held up the faith of
+every one of us, like a little saint and martyr as she is!  Though, to
+be sure, ye are but a Protestant; only these folks don't know the
+differ.'
+
+'If you would let me speak, Laurence,' said Arthur, 'you would hear
+that I am no more a Moslem than yourself, only my Frank dress might
+lead to trouble.  We are come to deliver you all, with a ransom from
+the French Consul.  Are you all safe--Mademoiselle and all? and how
+many of you?'
+
+'Mademoiselle and M. l'Abbe were safe and well three days since,' said
+Lanty; 'but that spalpeen there is my master and poor Victorine's, and
+will not let us put a foot near them.'
+
+'Where are they?  How many?' anxiously asked Arthur.
+
+'There are five of us altogether,' said Lanty; 'praise be to Him who
+has saved us thus far.  We know the touch of cold steel at our throats,
+as well as ever I knew the poor misthress' handbell; and unless our
+Lady, and St. Lawrence, and the rest of them, keep the better watch on
+us, the rascals will only ransom us without our heads, so jealous and
+bloodthirsty they are.  The Bey of Constantina sent for us once, but
+all we got by that was worse usage than the very dogs in Paris, and
+being dragged up these weary hills, where Maitre Hubert and I carried
+Mademoiselle every foot of the way on our backs, and she begging our
+pardon so prettily--only she could not walk, the rocks had so bruised
+her darlin' little feet.'
+
+'This is their chief holy man, Lanty.  If any one can prevail on these
+savages to release you it is he.'
+
+'And how come you to be hand and glove with them, Masther Arthur--you
+that I thought drownded with poor Madame and the little Chevalier and
+the rest?'
+
+'The Chevalier is not drowned, Laurent.  He is safe in the Consul's
+house at Algiers.'
+
+'Now heaven and all the saints be praised!  The Chevalier safe and
+well!  'Tis a very miracle!' cried Lanty, letting fall his burthen, as
+he clasped his hands in ecstasy and performed a caper which, in spite
+of all his master Eyoub's respect for the Marabouts, brought a furious
+yell of rage, and a tremendous blow with the cudgel, which Lanty, in
+his joy, seemed to receive as if it had been a feather.
+
+Hadji Eseb averted a further blow; and understanding from Arthur that
+the poor fellow's transport was caused by the tidings of the safety of
+his master's son, he seemed touched, and bade that he and Eyoub should
+lead the way to the place of durance of the chief prisoners.  On the
+way Ibrahim Aga interrogated both Eyoub in vernacular Arabic and Lanty
+in French.  The former was sullen, only speaking from his evident awe
+of the Marabouts, the latter voluble with joy and hope.
+
+Arthur learnt that the letter he had found under the stone was the
+fourth that Estelle and Hebert had written.  There had been a terrible
+journey up the mountains, when Lanty had fully thought Victorine must
+close her sufferings in some frightful ravine; but, nevertheless, she
+had recovered health and strength with every day's ascent above the
+close, narrow valley.  They were guarded all the way by Arabs armed to
+the teeth to prevent a rescue by the Bey of Constantina.
+
+On their arrival at the valley, which was the headquarters of the
+tribe, the sheyk of the entire clan had laid claim to the principal
+captives, and had carried off the young lady and her uncle; and in his
+dwelling she had a boarded floor to sleep on, and had been made much
+more comfortable than in the squalid huts below.  Her original master,
+Yakoub, had, however, come to seize her, with the force described by
+Murad.  Then it was that again there was a threat to kill rather than
+resign them; but on this occasion it was averted by Sheyk Abderrahman's
+son, a boy of about fourteen, who threw himself on his knees before
+Mademoiselle, and prayed his father earnestly for her life.
+
+'They spared her then,' said Lanty, 'and, mayhap, worse still may come
+of that.  Yakoub, the villain, ended by getting her back till they can
+have a council of their tribe, and there she is in his filthy hut; but
+the gossoon, Selim, as they call him, prowls about the place as if he
+were bewitched.  All the children are, for that matter, wherever she
+goes.  She makes cats' cradles for them, and sings to them, and tells
+them stories in her own sweet way out of the sacred history--such as
+may bring her into trouble one of these days.  Maitre Hebert heard her
+one day telling them the story of Moses, and he warned her that if she
+went on in that fashion it might be the death of us all.  "But," says
+she, "suppose we made Selim, and little Zuleika, and all the rest of
+them, Christians?  Suppose we brought all the tribe to come down and
+ask baptism, like as St. Nona did in the Lives of the Saints?"  He told
+her it was more like that they would only get her darling little head
+cut off, if no worse, but he could not get her to think that mattered
+at all at all.  She would have a crown and a palm up in heaven, and
+after her name in the Calendar on earth, bless her.'
+
+Then he went on to tell that Yakoub was furious at the notion of
+resigning his prize, and (Agamemnon-like) declared that if she were
+taken from him he should demand Victorine from Eyoub.  Unfortunately
+she was recovering her good looks in the mountain air; and, worse
+still, the spring of her 'blessed little Polichinelle' was broken,
+though happily no one guessed it, and hitherto it had been enough to
+show them the box.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII--CHRYSEIS AND BRISEIS
+
+
+
+      'The child
+Restore, I pray, her proffered ransom take,
+And in His priest, the Lord of Light revere.
+   Then through the ranks assenting murmurs rang,
+The priest to reverence, and the ransom take.'
+HOMER (DERBY).
+
+For one moment, before emerging from the forest, looking through an
+opening in the trees, down a steep slope, a group of children could be
+seen on the grass in front of the huts composing the adowara, little
+brown figures in scanty garments, lying about evidently listening
+intently to the figure, the gleam of whose blonde hair showed her
+instantly to be Estelle de Bourke.
+
+However, either the deputation had been descried, or Eyoub may have
+made some signal, for when the calvalcade had wound about through the
+remaining trees, and arrived among the huts, no one was to be seen.
+There was only the irregular square of huts built of rough stones and
+thatched with reeds, with big stones to keep the thatch on in the
+storm; a few goats were tethered near, and there was a rush of the
+great savage dogs, but they recognised Eyoub and Lanty, and were
+presently quieted.
+
+'This is the chief danger,' whispered Lanty.
+
+'Pray heaven the rogues do not murder them rather than give them up!'
+
+The Sunakite, beginning to make strange contortions and mutterings in a
+low voice, seemed to terrify Eyoub greatly.  Whether he pointed it out
+or not, or whether Eyoub was induced by his gestures to show it, was
+not clear to Arthur's mind; but at the chief abode, an assemblage of
+two stone hovels and rudely-built walls, the party halted, and made a
+loud knocking at the door, Hadji Eseb's solemn tones bidding those
+within to open in the name of Allah.
+
+It was done, disclosing a vista of men with drawn scimitars.  The
+Marabout demanded without ceremony where were the prisoners.
+
+'At yonder house,' he was answered by Yakoub himself, pointing to the
+farther end of the village.
+
+'Dog of a liar,' burst forth the Sunakite.  'Dost thou think to blind
+the eyes of the beloved of Allah, who knoweth the secrets of heaven and
+earth, and hath the sigil of Suleiman Ben Daoud, wherewith to penetrate
+the secret places of the false?'
+
+The ferocious-looking guardians looked at each other as though under
+the influence of supernatural terror, and then Hadji Eseb spoke:
+'Salaam Aleikum, my children; no man need fear who listens to the will
+of Allah, and honours his messengers.'
+
+All made way for the dignified old man and his suite, and they advanced
+into the court, where two men with drawn swords were keeping guard over
+the captives, who were on their knees in a corner of the court.
+
+ The sabres were sheathed, and there was a shuffling away at the
+advance of the Marabouts, Sheyk Yakoub making some apology about having
+delayed to admit such guests, but excusing himself on the score of
+supposing they were emissaries sent by those whose authority he so
+defied that he had sworn to slaughter his prisoners rather than
+surrender them.
+
+Hadji Eseb replied with a quotation from the Koran forbidding cruelty
+to the helpless, and sternly denounced wrath on the transgressors,
+bidding Yakoub draw off his savage bodyguard.
+
+The man was plainly alarmed, more especially as the Sunakite broke out
+into one of his wild wails of denunciation, waving his hands like a
+prophet of wrath, and predicting famine, disease, pestilence, to these
+slack observers of the law of Mohammed.
+
+This completed the alarm.  The bodyguard fled away pell-mell, Yakoub
+after them.  His women shut themselves into some innermost recesses,
+and the field was left to the Marabouts and the prisoners, who, not
+understanding what all this meant, were still kneeling in their corner.
+Hadji Eseb bade Arthur and the interpreter go to reassure them.
+
+At their advance a miserable embrowned figure, barefooted and half clad
+in a ragged haik, roped round his waist, threw himself before the fair-
+haired child, crying out in imperfect Arabic, 'Spare her, spare her,
+great Lord! much is to be won by saving her.'
+
+'We are come to save her,' said Arthur in French.  'Maitre Hebert, do
+you not know me?'
+
+Hubert looked up.  'M. Arture!  M. Arture!  Risen from the dead!' he
+cried, threw himself into the young man's arms, and burst out into a
+vehement sob; but in a second he recovered his manners and fell back,
+while Estelle looked up.
+
+'M. Arture,' she repeated.  'Ah! is it you?  Then, is my mamma alive
+and safe?'
+
+'Alas! no,' replied Arthur; 'but your little brother is safe and well
+at Algiers, and this good man, the Marabout, is come to deliver you.'
+
+'My mamma said you would protect us, and I knew you would come, like
+Mentor, to save us,' said Estelle, clasping her hands with ineffable
+joy.  'Oh, Monsieur!  I thank you next to the good God and the saints!'
+and she began fervently kissing Arthur's hand.  He turned to salute the
+Abbe, but was shocked to see how much more vacant the poor gentleman's
+stare had become, and how little he seemed to comprehend.
+
+'Ah!' said Estelle, with her pretty, tender, motherly air, 'my poor
+uncle has never seemed to understand since that dreadful day when they
+dragged him and Maitre Hebert out into the wood and were going to kill
+them.  And he has fever every night.  But, oh, M. Arture, did you say
+my brother was safe?' she repeated, as if not able to dwell enough upon
+the glad tidings.
+
+'And I hope you will soon be with him,' said Arthur.  'But,
+Mademoiselle, let me present you to the Grand Marabout, a sort of
+Moslem Abbe, who has come all this way to obtain your release.'
+
+He led Estelle forward, when she made a courtesy fit for her
+grandmother's salon, and in very fluent Cabeleyze dialect gave thanks
+for the kindness of coming to release her, and begged him to excuse her
+uncle, who was sick, and, as you say here, 'stricken of Allah.'
+
+The little French demoiselle's grace and politeness were by no means
+lost on the Marabout, who replied to her graciously; and at the sight
+of her reading M. Dessault's letter, which the interpreter presented to
+her, one of the suite could not help exclaiming, 'Ah! if women such as
+this will be went abroad in our streets, there would be nothing to hope
+for in Paradise.'
+
+Estelle did not seem to have suffered in health; indeed, in Arthur's
+eyes, she seemed in these six weeks to have grown, and to have more
+colour, while her expression had become less childish, deeper, and
+higher.  Her hair did not look neglected, though her dress--the same
+dark blue which she had worn on the voyage--had become very ragged and
+soiled, and her shoes were broken, and tied on with strips of rag.
+
+She gave a little scream of joy when the parcel of clothes sent by the
+French Consul was given to her, only longing to send some to Victorine
+before she retired to enjoy the comfort of clean and respectable
+clothes; and in the meantime something was attempted for the comfort of
+her companions, though it would not have been safe to put them into
+Frankish garments, and none had been brought.  Poor Hebert was the very
+ghost of the stout and important maitre d'hotel, and, indeed, the
+faithful man had borne the brunt of all the privations and sufferings,
+doing his utmost to shield and protect his little mistress and her
+helpless uncle.
+
+When Estelle reappeared, dressed once more like a little French lady
+(at least in the eyes of those who were not particular about fit), she
+found a little feast being prepared for her out of the provisions sent
+by the consuls; but she could not sit down to it till Arthur, escorted
+by several of the Marabout's suite, had carried a share both of the
+food and the garments to Lanty and Victorine.
+
+They, however, were not to be found.  The whole adowara seemed to be
+deserted except by a few frightened women and children, and Victorine
+and her Irish swain had no doubt been driven off into the woods by
+Eyoub--no Achilles certainly, but equally unwilling with the great
+Pelides to resign Briseis as a substitute for Chryseis.
+
+It was too late to attempt anything more that night; indeed, at sundown
+it became very cold.  A fire was lighted in the larger room, in the
+centre, where there was a hole for the exit of the smoke.
+
+The Marabouts seemed to be praying or reciting the Koran on one side of
+it, for there was a continuous chant or hum going on there; but they
+seemed to have no objection to the Christians sitting together on the
+other side conversing and exchanging accounts of their adventures.
+Maitre Hebert could not sufficiently dilate on the spirit,
+cheerfulness, and patience that Mademoiselle had displayed through all.
+He only had to lament her imprudence in trying to talk of the Christian
+faith to the children, telling them stories of the saints, and doing
+what, if all the tribe had not been so ignorant, would have brought
+destruction on them all.  'I would not have Monseigneur there know of
+it for worlds,' said he, glancing at the Grand Marabout.
+
+'Selim loves to hear such things,' said Estelle composedly.  'I have
+taught him to say the Paternoster, and the meaning of it, and Zuleika
+can nearly say them.'
+
+'Misericorde!' cried M. Hubert.  'What may not the child have brought
+on herself!'
+
+'Selim will be a chief,' returned Estelle.  'He will make his people do
+as he pleases, or he would do so; but now there will be no one to tell
+him about the true God and the blessed Saviour,' she added sadly.
+
+'Mademoiselle!' cried Hebert in indignant anger--'Mademoiselle would
+not be ungrateful for our safety from these horrors.'
+
+'Oh no!' exclaimed the child.  'I am very happy to return to my poor
+papa, and my brothers, and my grandmamma.  But I am sorry for Selim!
+Perhaps some good mission fathers would go out to them like those we
+heard of in Arcadia; and by and by, when I am grown up, I can come back
+with some sisters to teach the women to wash their children and not
+scold and fight.'
+
+The maitre d'hotel sighed, and was relieved when Estelle retired to the
+deserted women's apartments for the night.  He seemed to think her
+dangerous language might be understood and reported.
+
+The next morning the Marabout sent messengers, who brought back Yakoub
+and his people, and before many hours a sort of council was convened in
+the court of Yakoub's house, consisting of all the neighbouring heads
+of families, brown men, whose eyes gleamed fiercely out from under
+their haiks, and who were armed to the teeth with sabres, daggers, and,
+if possible, pistols and blunderbusses of all the worn-out patterns in
+Europe--some no doubt as old as the Thirty Years War; while those who
+could not attain to these weapons had the long spears of their
+ancestors, and were no bad representatives of the Amalekites of old.
+
+After all had solemnly taken their seats there was a fresh arrival of
+Sheyk Abderrahman and his ferocious-looking following.  He himself was
+a man of fine bearing, with a great black beard, and a gold-embroidered
+sash stuck full of pistols and knives, and with poor Madame de Bourke's
+best pearl necklace round his neck.  His son Selim was with him, a slim
+youth, with beautiful soft eyes glancing out from under a haik, striped
+with many colours, such as may have been the coat that marked Joseph as
+the heir.
+
+There were many salaams and formalities, and then the chief Marabout
+made a speech, explaining the purpose of his coming, diplomatically
+allowing that the Cabeleyzes were not subject to the Dey of Algiers,
+but showing that they enjoyed the advantages of the treaty with France,
+and that therefore they were bound to release the unfortunate
+shipwrecked captives, whom they had already plundered of all their
+property.  So far Estelle and Arthur, who were anxiously watching,
+crouching behind the wall of the deserted house court, could follow.
+Then arose yells and shouts of denial, and words too rapid to be
+followed.  In a lull, Hadji Eseb might be heard proffering ransom,
+while the cries and shrieks so well known to accompany bargaining broke
+out.
+
+Ibrahim Aga, who stood by the wall, here told them that Yakoub and
+Eyoub seemed not unwilling to consent to the redemption of the male
+captives, but that they claimed both the females.  Hebert clenched his
+teeth, and bade Ibrahim interfere and declare that he would never be
+set free without his little lady.
+
+Here, however, the tumult lulled a little, and Abderrahman's voice was
+heard declaring that he claimed the Daughter of the Silkworm as a wife
+for his son.
+
+Ibrahim then sprang to the Marabout's side, and was heard representing
+that the young lady was of high and noble blood.  To which Abderrahman
+replied with the dignity of an old lion, that were she the daughter of
+the King of the Franks himself, she would only be a fit mate for the
+son of the King of the Mountains.  A fresh roar of jangling and
+disputing began, during which Estelle whispered, 'Poor Selim, I know he
+would believe--he half does already.  It would be like Clotilda.'
+
+'And then he would be cruelly murdered, and you too,' returned Arthur.
+
+ 'We should be martyrs,' said Estelle, as she had so often said before;
+and as Hubert shuddered and cried, 'Do not speak of such things,
+Mademoiselle, just as there is hope,' she answered, 'Oh no! do not
+think I want to stay in this dreadful place--only if I should have to
+do so--I long to go to my brother and my poor papa.  Then I can send
+some good fathers to convert them.'
+
+'Ha!' cried Arthur; 'what now!  They are at one another's throats!'
+
+Yakoub and Eyoub with flashing sabres were actually flying at each
+other, but Marabouts were seizing them and holding them back, and the
+Sunakite's chant arose above all the uproar.
+
+Ibrahim was able to explain that Yakoub insisted that if the mistress
+were appropriated by Abderrahman, the maid should be his compensation.
+Eyoub, who had been the foremost in the rescue from the wreck, was
+furious at the demand, and they were on the point of fighting when thus
+withheld; while the Sunakite was denouncing woes on the spoiler and the
+lover of Christians, which made the blood of the Cabeleyzes run cold.
+Their flocks would be diseased, storms from the mountains would
+overwhelm them, their children would die, their name and race be cut
+off, if infidel girls were permitted to bewitch them and turn them from
+the faith of the Prophet.  He pointed to young Selim, and demanded
+whether he were not already spellbound by the silken daughter of the
+Giaour to join in her idolatry.
+
+There were howls of rage, a leaping up, a drawing of swords, a demand
+that the unbelievers should die at once.  It was a cry the captives
+knew only too well.  Arthur grasped a pistol, and loosened his sword,
+but young Selim had thrown himself at the Marabout's feet, sobbing out
+entreaties that the maiden's life might be saved, and assurances that
+he was a staunch believer; while his father, scandalised at such an
+exhibition on behalf of any such chattel as a female, roughly snatched
+him from the ground, and insisted on his silence.
+
+The Marabouts had, at their chief's signal, ranged themselves in front
+of the inner court, and the authority of the Hadji had imposed silence
+even on the fanatic.  He spoke again, making them understand that
+Frankish vengeance in case of a massacre could reach them even in their
+mountains when backed by the Dey.  And to Abderrahman he represented
+that the only safety for his son, the only peace for his tribe, was in
+the surrender of these two dangerous causes of altercation.
+
+The 'King of the Mountains' was convinced by the scene that had just
+taken place of the inexpedience of retaining the prisoners alive.  And
+some pieces of gold thrust into his hand by Ibrahim may have shown him
+that much might be lost by slaughtering them.
+
+The Babel which next arose was of the amicable bargaining sort.  And
+after another hour of suspense the interpreter came to announce that
+the mountaineers, out of their great respect, not for the Dey, but the
+Marabout, had agreed to accept 900 piastres as the ransom of all the
+five captives, and that the Marabout recommended an immediate start,
+lest anything should rouse the ferocity of the tribe again.
+
+Estelle's warm heart would fain have taken leave of the few who had
+been kind to her; but this was impossible, for the women were in
+hiding, and she could only leave one or two kerchiefs sent from
+Algiers, hoping Zuleika might have one of them.  Ibrahim insisted on
+her being veiled as closely as a Mohammedan woman as she passed out.
+One look between her and Selim might have been fatal to all; though
+hers may have been in all childish innocence, she did not know how the
+fiery youth was writhing in his father's indignant grasp, forcibly
+withheld from rushing after one who had been a new life and revelation
+to him.
+
+Mayhap the passion was as fleeting as it was violent, but the Marabout
+knew it boded danger to the captives to whom he had pledged his honour.
+He sent them, mounted on mules, on in front, while he and his company
+remained in the rear, watching till Lanty and Victorine were driven up
+like cattle by Eyoub, to whom he paid an earnest of his special share
+of the ransom.  He permitted no pause, not even for a greeting between
+Estelle and poor Victorine, nor to clothe the two unfortunates, more
+than by throwing a mantle to poor Victorine, who had nothing but a
+short petticoat and a scanty, ragged, filthy bournouse.  She shrouded
+herself as well as she could when lifted on her mule, scarce perhaps
+yet aware what had happened to her, only that Lanty was near, muttering
+benedictions and thanksgivings as he vibrated between her mule and that
+of the Abbe.
+
+It was only at the evening halt that, in a cave on the mountain-side,
+Estelle and Victorine could cling to each other in a close embrace with
+sobs of joy; and while Estelle eagerly produced clothes from her little
+store of gifts, the poor femme de chambre wept for joy to feel indeed
+that she was free, and shed a fresh shower of tears of joy at the sight
+of a brush and comb.
+
+Lanty was purring over his foster-brother, and cosseting him like a cat
+over a newly-recovered kitten, resolved not to see how much shaken the
+poor Abbe's intellect had been, and quite sure that the reverend father
+would be altogether himself when he only had his soutane again.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV--WELCOME
+
+
+
+'Well hath the Prophet-chief your bidding done.'
+MOORE (Lalla Rookh).
+
+Bugia was thoroughly Moorish, and subject to attacks of fanaticism.
+Perhaps the Grand Marabout did not wholly trust the Sunakite not to
+stir up the populace, for he would not take the recovered captives to
+his palace, avoided the city as much as possible, and took them down to
+the harbour, where, beside the old Roman quay, he caused his trusty
+attendant, Reverdi, to hire a boat to take them out to the French
+tartane--Reverdi himself going with them to ensure the fidelity of the
+boatmen.  Estelle would have kissed the good old man's hand in fervent
+thanks, but, child as she was, he shrank from her touch as an unholy
+thing; and it was enforced on her and Victorine that they were by no
+means to remove their heavy mufflings till they were safe on board the
+tartane, and even out of harbour.  The Frenchman in command of the
+vessel was evidently of the same mind, and, though enchanted to receive
+them, sent them at once below.  He said his men had been in danger of
+being mobbed in the streets, and that there were reports abroad that
+the harem of a great Frank chief, and all his treasure, were being
+recovered from the Cabeleyzes, so that he doubted whether all the
+influence of the Grand Marabout might prevent their being pursued by
+corsairs.
+
+Right glad was he to recognise the pennant of the Calypso outside the
+harbour, and he instantly ran up a signal flag to intimate success.  A
+boat was immediately put off from the frigate, containing not only
+Lieutenant Bullock, but an officer in scarlet, who had no sooner come
+on deck than he shook Arthur eagerly by the hand, exclaiming,
+
+''Tis you, then!  I cannot be mistaken in poor Davie's son, though you
+were a mere bit bairn when I saw you last!'
+
+'Archie Hope!' exclaimed Arthur, joyfully.  'Can you tell me anything
+of my mother?'
+
+'She was well when last I heard of her, only sore vexed that you should
+be cut off from her by your own fule deed, my lad!  Ye've thought
+better of it now?'
+
+Major Hope was here interrupted by the lieutenant, who brought an
+invitation from Captain Beresford to the whole French party to bestow
+themselves on board the Calypso.  After ascertaining that the Marabout
+had taken up their cause, and that the journey up Mount Couco and back
+again could not occupy less than twelve or fourteen days, he had sailed
+for Minorca, where he had obtained sanction to convey any of the
+captives who might be rescued to Algiers.  He had also seen Major Hope,
+who, on hearing of the adventures of his young kinsman, asked leave of
+absence to come in search of him, and became the guest of the officers
+of the Calypso.
+
+Arthur found himself virtually the head of the party, and, after
+consultation with Ibrahim Aga and Maitre Hebert, it was agreed that
+there would be far more safety, as well as better accommodation, in the
+British ship than in the French tartane, and Arthur went down to
+communicate the proposal to Estelle, whom the close, little, evil-
+smelling cabin was already making much paler than all her privations
+had done.
+
+'An English ship,' she said.  'Would my papa approve?' and her little
+prim diplomatic air sat comically on her.
+
+'Oh yes,' said Arthur.  'He himself asked the captain to seek for you,
+Mademoiselle.  There is peace between our countries, you know.'
+
+'That is good,' she said, jumping up.  'For oh! this cabin is worse
+than it is inside Yakoub's hut!  Oh take me on deck before I am ill!'
+
+She was able to be her own little charming French and Irish self when
+Arthur led her on deck; and her gracious thanks and pretty courtesy
+made them agree that it would have been ten thousand pities if such a
+creature could not have been redeemed from the savage Arabs.
+
+The whole six were speedily on board the Calypso, where Captain
+Beresford received the little heroine with politeness worthy of her own
+manners.  He had given up his own cabin for her and Victorine,
+purchased at Port Mahon all he thought she could need, and had even
+recollected to procure clerical garments for the Abbe--a sight which
+rejoiced Lanty's faithful heart, though the poor Abbe was too ill all
+the time of the voyage to leave his berth.  Arthur's arrival was
+greeted by the Abyssinian with an inarticulate howl of delight, as the
+poor fellow crawled to his feet, and began kissing them before he could
+prevent it.  Fareek had been the pet of the sailors, and well taken
+care of by the boatswain.  He was handy, quick, and useful, and Captain
+Bullock thought he might pick up a living as an attendant in the
+galley; but he showed that he held himself to belong absolutely to
+Arthur, and rendered every service to him that he could, picking up
+what was needful in the care of European clothes by imitation of the
+captain's servant, and showing a dexterity that made it probable that
+his cleverness had been the cause of the loss of a tongue that might
+have betrayed too much.  To young Hope he seemed like a sacred legacy
+from poor Tam, and a perplexing one, such as he could hardly leave in
+his dumbness to take the chances of life among sailors.
+
+His own plans were likewise to be considered, and Major Hope concerned
+himself much about them.  He was a second cousin--a near relation in
+Scottish estimation--and no distant neighbour.  His family were Tories,
+though content to submit to the House of Hanover, and had always been
+on friendly terms with Lady Hope.
+
+'I writ at once, on hearing of you, to let her know you were in
+safety,' said the major.  'And what do you intend the noo?'
+
+'Can I win home?' anxiously asked Arthur.  'You know I never was
+attainted!'
+
+'And what would ye do if you were at home?'
+
+'I should see my mother.'
+
+'Small doubt of the welcome she would have for you, my poor laddie,'
+said the major; 'but what next?'  And as Arthur hesitated, 'I misdoubt
+greatly whether Burnside would give you a helping hand if you came
+fresh from colloguing with French Jacobites, though my father and all
+the rest of us at the Lynn aye told him that he might thank himself and
+his dour old dominie for your prank--you were but a schoolboy then--you
+are a man now; and though your poor mother would be blithe to set eyes
+on you, she would be sairly perplexed what gate you had best turn
+thereafter.  Now, see here!  There's talk of our being sent to dislodge
+the Spaniards from Sicily.  You are a likely lad, and the colonel would
+take my word for you if you came back with me to Port Mahon as a
+volunteer; and once under King George's colours, there would be
+pressure enough from all of us Hopes upon Burnside to gar him get you a
+commission, unless you win one for yourself.  Then you could gang hame
+when the time was served, a credit and an honour to all!'
+
+ 'I had rather win my own way than be beholden to Burnside,' said
+Arthur, his face lighting at the proposal.
+
+ 'Hout, man!  That will be as the chances of war may turn out.  As to
+your kit, we'll see to that!  Never fear.  Your mother will make it
+up.'
+
+ 'Thanks, Archie, with all my heart, but I am not so destitute,' and he
+mentioned Yusuf's legacy, which the major held that he was perfectly
+justified in appropriating; and in answer to his next question, assured
+him that he would be able to retain Fareek as his servant.
+
+This was enough for Arthur, who knew that the relief to his mother's
+mind of his safety and acceptance as a subject would outweigh any
+disappointment at not seeing his face, when he would only be an
+unforgiven exile, liable to be informed against by any malicious
+neighbour.
+
+He borrowed materials, and had written a long letter to her before the
+Calypso put in at Algiers.  The little swift tartane had forestalled
+her; and every one was on the watch, when Estelle, who had been treated
+like a little princess on board, was brought in the long-boat with all
+her party to the quay.  Though it was at daybreak, not only the
+European inhabitants, but Turks, Arabs, Moors, and Jews thronged the
+wharf in welcome; and there were jubilant cries as all the five
+captives could be seen seated in the boat in the light of the rising
+sun.
+
+M. Dessault, with Ulysse in his hand, stood foremost on the quay, and
+the two children were instantly in each other's embrace.  Their uncle
+had to be helped out.  He was more bewildered than gratified by the
+welcome.  He required to be assured that the multitudes assembled meant
+him no harm, and would not move without Lanty; and though he bowed low
+in return to M. Dessault's greeting, it was like an automaton, and with
+no recognition.
+
+Estelle, between her brother and her friend, and followed by all the
+rest, was conducted by the French Consul to the chapel, arranged in one
+of the Moorish rooms.  There stood beside the altar his two chaplains,
+and at once mass was commenced, while all threw themselves on their
+knees in thankfulness; and at the well-known sound a ray of
+intelligence and joy began to brighten even poor Phelim's features.
+
+Arthur, in overflowing joy, could not but kneel with the others; and
+when the service concluded with the Te Deum's lofty praise, his tears
+dropped for joy and gratitude that the captivity was over, the children
+safe, and himself no longer an outcast and exile.
+
+He had, however, to take leave of the children sooner than he wished,
+for the Calypso had to sail the next day.
+
+Ulysse wept bitterly, clung to him, and persisted that he WAS their
+secretary, and must go with them.  Estelle, too, had tears in her eyes;
+but she said, half in earnest, 'You know, Mentor vanished when
+Telemaque came home!  Some day, Monsieur, you will come to see us at
+Paris, and we shall know how to show our gratitude!'
+
+Both Lanty and Maitre Hebert promised to write to M. Arture; and in due
+time he received not only their letters but fervent acknowledgments
+from the Comte de Bourke, who knew that to him was owing the life and
+liberty of the children.
+
+From Lanty Arthur further heard that the poor Abbe had languished and
+died soon after reaching home.  His faithful foster-brother was deeply
+distressed, though the family had rewarded the fidelity of the servants
+by promoting Hebert to be intendant of the Provencal estates, while
+Lanty was wedded to Victorine, with a dot that enabled them to start a
+flourishing perruquier's shop, and make a home for his mother when
+little Jacques outgrew her care.
+
+Estelle was in due time married to a French nobleman, and in after
+years 'General Sir Arthur Hope' took his son and daughter to pay her a
+long visit in her Provencal chateau, and to converse on the strange
+adventures that seemed like a dream.  He found her a noble lady, well
+fulfilling the promise of her heroic girlhood, and still lamenting the
+impossibility of sending any mission to open the eyes of the half-
+converted Selim.
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Modern Telemachus
+by Charlotte M. Yonge
+
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