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VOLUME[ VOLUME 1  ]  

CHAPTER[ XL. IN WHICH THE STORY OF THE CAPTIVE IS CONTINUED.

SONNET

"Blest souls, that, from this mortal husk set free,

  In guerdon of brave deeds beatified,

  Above this lowly orb of ours abide

Made heirs of heaven and immortality,

With noble rage and ardour glowing ye

  Your strength, while strength was yours, in battle plied,

  And with your own blood and the foeman's dyed

The sandy soil and the encircling sea.

It was the ebbing life-blood first that failed

The weary arms; the stout hearts never quailed.

  Though vanquished, yet ye earned the victor's crown:

Though mourned, yet still triumphant was your fall

For there ye won, between the sword and wall,

  In Heaven glory and on earth renown."

"That is it exactly, according to my recollection," said the captive.

"Well then, that on the fort," said the gentleman, "if my memory serves

me, goes thus:

SONNET

"Up from this wasted soil, this shattered shell,

  Whose walls and towers here in ruin lie,

  Three thousand soldier souls took wing on high,

In the bright mansions of the blest to dwell.

The onslaught of the foeman to repel

  By might of arm all vainly did they try,

  And when at length 'twas left them but to die,

Wearied and few the last defenders fell.

And this same arid soil hath ever been

A haunt of countless mournful memories,

  As well in our day as in days of yore.

But never yet to Heaven it sent, I ween,

From its hard bosom purer souls than these,

  Or braver bodies on its surface bore."

The sonnets were not disliked, and the captive was rejoiced at the

tidings they gave him of his comrade, and continuing his tale, he went on

to say:

The Goletta and the fort being thus in their hands, the Turks gave orders

to dismantle the Goletta--for the fort was reduced to such a state that

there was nothing left to level--and to do the work more quickly and

easily they mined it in three places; but nowhere were they able to blow

up the part which seemed to be the least strong, that is to say, the old

walls, while all that remained standing of the new fortifications that

the Fratin had made came to the ground with the greatest ease. Finally

the fleet returned victorious and triumphant to Constantinople, and a few

months later died my master, El Uchali, otherwise Uchali Fartax, which

means in Turkish "the scabby renegade;" for that he was; it is the

practice with the Turks to name people from some defect or virtue they

may possess; the reason being that there are among them only four

surnames belonging to families tracing their descent from the Ottoman

house, and the others, as I have said, take their names and surnames

either from bodily blemishes or moral qualities. This "scabby one" rowed

at the oar as a slave of the Grand Signor's for fourteen years, and when

over thirty-four years of age, in resentment at having been struck by a

Turk while at the oar, turned renegade and renounced his faith in order

to be able to revenge himself; and such was his valour that, without

owing his advancement to the base ways and means by which most favourites

of the Grand Signor rise to power, he came to be king of Algiers, and

afterwards general-on-sea, which is the third place of trust in the

realm. He was a Calabrian by birth, and a worthy man morally, and he

treated his slaves with great humanity. He had three thousand of them,

and after his death they were divided, as he directed by his will,

between the Grand Signor (who is heir of all who die and shares with the

children of the deceased) and his renegades. I fell to the lot of a

Venetian renegade who, when a cabin boy on board a ship, had been taken

by Uchali and was so much beloved by him that he became one of his most

favoured youths. He came to be the most cruel renegade I ever saw: his

name was Hassan Aga, and he grew very rich and became king of Algiers.

With him I went there from Constantinople, rather glad to be so near

Spain, not that I intended to write to anyone about my unhappy lot, but

to try if fortune would be kinder to me in Algiers than in

Constantinople, where I had attempted in a thousand ways to escape

without ever finding a favourable time or chance; but in Algiers I

resolved to seek for other means of effecting the purpose I cherished so

dearly; for the hope of obtaining my liberty never deserted me; and when

in my plots and schemes and attempts the result did not answer my

expectations, without giving way to despair I immediately began to look

out for or conjure up some new hope to support me, however faint or

feeble it might be.

In this way I lived on immured in a building or prison called by the

Turks a bano in which they confine the Christian captives, as well those

that are the king's as those belonging to private individuals, and also

what they call those of the Almacen, which is as much as to say the

slaves of the municipality, who serve the city in the public works and

other employments; but captives of this kind recover their liberty with

great difficulty, for, as they are public property and have no particular

master, there is no one with whom to treat for their ransom, even though

they may have the means. To these banos, as I have said, some private

individuals of the town are in the habit of bringing their captives,

especially when they are to be ransomed; because there they can keep them

in safety and comfort until their ransom arrives. The king's captives

also, that are on ransom, do not go out to work with the rest of the

crew, unless when their ransom is delayed; for then, to make them write

for it more pressingly, they compel them to work and go for wood, which

is no light labour.

I, however, was one of those on ransom, for when it was discovered that I

was a captain, although I declared my scanty means and want of fortune,

nothing could dissuade them from including me among the gentlemen and

those waiting to be ransomed. They put a chain on me, more as a mark of

this than to keep me safe, and so I passed my life in that bano with

several other gentlemen and persons of quality marked out as held to

ransom; but though at times, or rather almost always, we suffered from

hunger and scanty clothing, nothing distressed us so much as hearing and

seeing at every turn the unexampled and unheard-of cruelties my master

inflicted upon the Christians. Every day he hanged a man, impaled one,

cut off the ears of another; and all with so little provocation, or so

entirely without any, that the Turks acknowledged he did it merely for

the sake of doing it, and because he was by nature murderously disposed

towards the whole human race. The only one that fared at all well with

him was a Spanish soldier, something de Saavedra by name, to whom he

never gave a blow himself, or ordered a blow to be given, or addressed a

hard word, although he had done things that will dwell in the memory of

the people there for many a year, and all to recover his liberty; and for

the least of the many things he did we all dreaded that he would be

impaled, and he himself was in fear of it more than once; and only that

time does not allow, I could tell you now something of what that soldier

did, that would interest and astonish you much more than the narration of

my own tale.

To go on with my story; the courtyard of our prison was overlooked by the

windows of the house belonging to a wealthy Moor of high position; and

these, as is usual in Moorish houses, were rather loopholes than windows,

and besides were covered with thick and close lattice-work. It so

happened, then, that as I was one day on the terrace of our prison with

three other comrades, trying, to pass away the time, how far we could

leap with our chains, we being alone, for all the other Christians had

gone out to work, I chanced to raise my eyes, and from one of these

little closed windows I saw a reed appear with a cloth attached to the

end of it, and it kept waving to and fro, and moving as if making signs

to us to come and take it. We watched it, and one of those who were with

me went and stood under the reed to see whether they would let it drop,

or what they would do, but as he did so the reed was raised and moved

from side to side, as if they meant to say "no" by a shake of the head.

The Christian came back, and it was again lowered, making the same

movements as before. Another of my comrades went, and with him the same

happened as with the first, and then the third went forward, but with the

same result as the first and second. Seeing this I did not like not to

try my luck, and as soon as I came under the reed it was dropped and fell

inside the bano at my feet. I hastened to untie the cloth, in which I

perceived a knot, and in this were ten cianis, which are coins of base

gold, current among the Moors, and each worth ten reals of our money.

It is needless to say I rejoiced over this godsend, and my joy was not

less than my wonder as I strove to imagine how this good fortune could

have come to us, but to me specially; for the evident unwillingness to

drop the reed for any but me showed that it was for me the favour was

intended. I took my welcome money, broke the reed, and returned to the

terrace, and looking up at the window, I saw a very white hand put out

that opened and shut very quickly. From this we gathered or fancied that

it must be some woman living in that house that had done us this

kindness, and to show that we were grateful for it, we made salaams after

the fashion of the Moors, bowing the head, bending the body, and crossing

the arms on the breast. Shortly afterwards at the same window a small

cross made of reeds was put out and immediately withdrawn. This sign led

us to believe that some Christian woman was a captive in the house, and

that it was she who had been so good to us; but the whiteness of the hand

and the bracelets we had perceived made us dismiss that idea, though we

thought it might be one of the Christian renegades whom their masters

very often take as lawful wives, and gladly, for they prefer them to the

women of their own nation. In all our conjectures we were wide of the

truth; so from that time forward our sole occupation was watching and

gazing at the window where the cross had appeared to us, as if it were

our pole-star; but at least fifteen days passed without our seeing either

it or the hand, or any other sign and though meanwhile we endeavoured

with the utmost pains to ascertain who it was that lived in the house,

and whether there were any Christian renegade in it, nobody could ever

tell us anything more than that he who lived there was a rich Moor of

high position, Hadji Morato by name, formerly alcaide of La Pata, an

office of high dignity among them. But when we least thought it was going

to rain any more cianis from that quarter, we saw the reed suddenly

appear with another cloth tied in a larger knot attached to it, and this

at a time when, as on the former occasion, the bano was deserted and

unoccupied.

We made trial as before, each of the same three going forward before I

did; but the reed was delivered to none but me, and on my approach it was

let drop. I untied the knot and I found forty Spanish gold crowns with a

paper written in Arabic, and at the end of the writing there was a large

cross drawn. I kissed the cross, took the crowns and returned to the

terrace, and we all made our salaams; again the hand appeared, I made

signs that I would read the paper, and then the window was closed. We

were all puzzled, though filled with joy at what had taken place; and as

none of us understood Arabic, great was our curiosity to know what the

paper contained, and still greater the difficulty of finding some one to

read it. At last I resolved to confide in a renegade, a native of Murcia,

who professed a very great friendship for me, and had given pledges that

bound him to keep any secret I might entrust to him; for it is the custom

with some renegades, when they intend to return to Christian territory,

to carry about them certificates from captives of mark testifying, in

whatever form they can, that such and such a renegade is a worthy man who

has always shown kindness to Christians, and is anxious to escape on the

first opportunity that may present itself. Some obtain these testimonials

with good intentions, others put them to a cunning use; for when they go

to pillage on Christian territory, if they chance to be cast away, or

taken prisoners, they produce their certificates and say that from these

papers may be seen the object they came for, which was to remain on

Christian ground, and that it was to this end they joined the Turks in

their foray. In this way they escape the consequences of the first

outburst and make their peace with the Church before it does them any

harm, and then when they have the chance they return to Barbary to become

what they were before. Others, however, there are who procure these

papers and make use of them honestly, and remain on Christian soil. This

friend of mine, then, was one of these renegades that I have described;

he had certificates from all our comrades, in which we testified in his

favour as strongly as we could; and if the Moors had found the papers

they would have burned him alive.

I knew that he understood Arabic very well, and could not only speak but

also write it; but before I disclosed the whole matter to him, I asked

him to read for me this paper which I had found by accident in a hole in

my cell. He opened it and remained some time examining it and muttering

to himself as he translated it. I asked him if he understood it, and he

told me he did perfectly well, and that if I wished him to tell me its

meaning word for word, I must give him pen and ink that he might do it

more satisfactorily. We at once gave him what he required, and he set

about translating it bit by bit, and when he had done he said:

"All that is here in Spanish is what the Moorish paper contains, and you

must bear in mind that when it says 'Lela Marien' it means 'Our Lady the

Virgin Mary.'"

We read the paper and it ran thus:

"When I was a child my father had a slave who taught me to pray the

Christian prayer in my own language, and told me many things about Lela

Marien. The Christian died, and I know that she did not go to the fire,

but to Allah, because since then I have seen her twice, and she told me

to go to the land of the Christians to see Lela Marien, who had great

love for me. I know not how to go. I have seen many Christians, but

except thyself none has seemed to me to be a gentleman. I am young and

beautiful, and have plenty of money to take with me. See if thou canst

contrive how we may go, and if thou wilt thou shalt be my husband there,

and if thou wilt not it will not distress me, for Lela Marien will find

me some one to marry me. I myself have written this: have a care to whom

thou givest it to read: trust no Moor, for they are all perfidious. I am

greatly troubled on this account, for I would not have thee confide in

anyone, because if my father knew it he would at once fling me down a

well and cover me with stones. I will put a thread to the reed; tie the

answer to it, and if thou hast no one to write for thee in Arabic, tell

it to me by signs, for Lela Marien will make me understand thee. She and

Allah and this cross, which I often kiss as the captive bade me, protect

thee."

Judge, sirs, whether we had reason for surprise and joy at the words of

this paper; and both one and the other were so great, that the renegade

perceived that the paper had not been found by chance, but had been in

reality addressed to some one of us, and he begged us, if what he

suspected were the truth, to trust him and tell him all, for he would

risk his life for our freedom; and so saying he took out from his breast

a metal crucifix, and with many tears swore by the God the image

represented, in whom, sinful and wicked as he was, he truly and

faithfully believed, to be loyal to us and keep secret whatever we chose

to reveal to him; for he thought and almost foresaw that by means of her

who had written that paper, he and all of us would obtain our liberty,

and he himself obtain the object he so much desired, his restoration to

the bosom of the Holy Mother Church, from which by his own sin and

ignorance he was now severed like a corrupt limb. The renegade said this

with so many tears and such signs of repentance, that with one consent we

all agreed to tell him the whole truth of the matter, and so we gave him

a full account of all, without hiding anything from him. We pointed out

to him the window at which the reed appeared, and he by that means took

note of the house, and resolved to ascertain with particular care who

lived in it. We agreed also that it would be advisable to answer the

Moorish lady's letter, and the renegade without a moment's delay took

down the words I dictated to him, which were exactly what I shall tell

you, for nothing of importance that took place in this affair has escaped

my memory, or ever will while life lasts. This, then, was the answer

returned to the Moorish lady:

"The true Allah protect thee, Lady, and that blessed Marien who is the

true mother of God, and who has put it into thy heart to go to the land

of the Christians, because she loves thee. Entreat her that she be

pleased to show thee how thou canst execute the command she gives thee,

for she will, such is her goodness. On my own part, and on that of all

these Christians who are with me, I promise to do all that we can for

thee, even to death. Fail not to write to me and inform me what thou dost

mean to do, and I will always answer thee; for the great Allah has given

us a Christian captive who can speak and write thy language well, as thou

mayest see by this paper; without fear, therefore, thou canst inform us

of all thou wouldst. As to what thou sayest, that if thou dost reach the

land of the Christians thou wilt be my wife, I give thee my promise upon

it as a good Christian; and know that the Christians keep their promises

better than the Moors. Allah and Marien his mother watch over thee, my

Lady."

The paper being written and folded I waited two days until the bano was

empty as before, and immediately repaired to the usual walk on the

terrace to see if there were any sign of the reed, which was not long in

making its appearance. As soon as I saw it, although I could not

distinguish who put it out, I showed the paper as a sign to attach the

thread, but it was already fixed to the reed, and to it I tied the paper;

and shortly afterwards our star once more made its appearance with the

white flag of peace, the little bundle. It was dropped, and I picked it

up, and found in the cloth, in gold and silver coins of all sorts, more

than fifty crowns, which fifty times more strengthened our joy and

doubled our hope of gaining our liberty. That very night our renegade

returned and said he had learned that the Moor we had been told of lived

in that house, that his name was Hadji Morato, that he was enormously

rich, that he had one only daughter the heiress of all his wealth, and

that it was the general opinion throughout the city that she was the most

beautiful woman in Barbary, and that several of the viceroys who came

there had sought her for a wife, but that she had been always unwilling

to marry; and he had learned, moreover, that she had a Christian slave

who was now dead; all which agreed with the contents of the paper. We

immediately took counsel with the renegade as to what means would have to

be adopted in order to carry off the Moorish lady and bring us all to

Christian territory; and in the end it was agreed that for the present we

should wait for a second communication from Zoraida (for that was the

name of her who now desires to be called Maria), because we saw clearly

that she and no one else could find a way out of all these difficulties.

When we had decided upon this the renegade told us not to be uneasy, for

he would lose his life or restore us to liberty. For four days the bano

was filled with people, for which reason the reed delayed its appearance

for four days, but at the end of that time, when the bano was, as it

generally was, empty, it appeared with the cloth so bulky that it

promised a happy birth. Reed and cloth came down to me, and I found

another paper and a hundred crowns in gold, without any other coin. The

renegade was present, and in our cell we gave him the paper to read,

which was to this effect:

"I cannot think of a plan, senor, for our going to Spain, nor has Lela

Marien shown me one, though I have asked her. All that can be done is for

me to give you plenty of money in gold from this window. With it ransom

yourself and your friends, and let one of you go to the land of the

Christians, and there buy a vessel and come back for the others; and he

will find me in my father's garden, which is at the Babazon gate near the

seashore, where I shall be all this summer with my father and my

servants. You can carry me away from there by night without any danger,

and bring me to the vessel. And remember thou art to be my husband, else

I will pray to Marien to punish thee. If thou canst not trust anyone to

go for the vessel, ransom thyself and do thou go, for I know thou wilt

return more surely than any other, as thou art a gentleman and a

Christian. Endeavour to make thyself acquainted with the garden; and when

I see thee walking yonder I shall know that the bano is empty and I will

give thee abundance of money. Allah protect thee, senor."

These were the words and contents of the second paper, and on hearing

them, each declared himself willing to be the ransomed one, and promised

to go and return with scrupulous good faith; and I too made the same

offer; but to all this the renegade objected, saying that he would not on

any account consent to one being set free before all went together, as

experience had taught him how ill those who have been set free keep

promises which they made in captivity; for captives of distinction

frequently had recourse to this plan, paying the ransom of one who was to

go to Valencia or Majorca with money to enable him to arm a bark and

return for the others who had ransomed him, but who never came back; for

recovered liberty and the dread of losing it again efface from the memory

all the obligations in the world. And to prove the truth of what he said,

he told us briefly what had happened to a certain Christian gentleman

almost at that very time, the strangest case that had ever occurred even

there, where astonishing and marvellous things are happening every

instant. In short, he ended by saying that what could and ought to be

done was to give the money intended for the ransom of one of us

Christians to him, so that he might with it buy a vessel there in Algiers

under the pretence of becoming a merchant and trader at Tetuan and along

the coast; and when master of the vessel, it would be easy for him to hit

on some way of getting us all out of the bano and putting us on board;

especially if the Moorish lady gave, as she said, money enough to ransom

all, because once free it would be the easiest thing in the world for us

to embark even in open day; but the greatest difficulty was that the

Moors do not allow any renegade to buy or own any craft, unless it be a

large vessel for going on roving expeditions, because they are afraid

that anyone who buys a small vessel, especially if he be a Spaniard, only

wants it for the purpose of escaping to Christian territory. This however

he could get over by arranging with a Tagarin Moor to go shares with him

in the purchase of the vessel, and in the profit on the cargo; and under

cover of this he could become master of the vessel, in which case he

looked upon all the rest as accomplished. But though to me and my

comrades it had seemed a better plan to send to Majorca for the vessel,

as the Moorish lady suggested, we did not dare to oppose him, fearing

that if we did not do as he said he would denounce us, and place us in

danger of losing all our lives if he were to disclose our dealings with

Zoraida, for whose life we would have all given our own. We therefore

resolved to put ourselves in the hands of God and in the renegade's; and

at the same time an answer was given to Zoraida, telling her that we

would do all she recommended, for she had given as good advice as if Lela

Marien had delivered it, and that it depended on her alone whether we

were to defer the business or put it in execution at once. I renewed my

promise to be her husband; and thus the next day that the bano chanced to

be empty she at different times gave us by means of the reed and cloth

two thousand gold crowns and a paper in which she said that the next

Juma, that is to say Friday, she was going to her father's garden, but

that before she went she would give us more money; and if it were not

enough we were to let her know, as she would give us as much as we asked,

for her father had so much he would not miss it, and besides she kept all

the keys.

We at once gave the renegade five hundred crowns to buy the vessel, and

with eight hundred I ransomed myself, giving the money to a Valencian

merchant who happened to be in Algiers at the time, and who had me

released on his word, pledging it that on the arrival of the first ship

from Valencia he would pay my ransom; for if he had given the money at

once it would have made the king suspect that my ransom money had been

for a long time in Algiers, and that the merchant had for his own

advantage kept it secret. In fact my master was so difficult to deal with

that I dared not on any account pay down the money at once. The Thursday

before the Friday on which the fair Zoraida was to go to the garden she

gave us a thousand crowns more, and warned us of her departure, begging

me, if I were ransomed, to find out her father's garden at once, and by

all means to seek an opportunity of going there to see her. I answered in

a few words that I would do so, and that she must remember to commend us

to Lela Marien with all the prayers the captive had taught her. This

having been done, steps were taken to ransom our three comrades, so as to

enable them to quit the bano, and lest, seeing me ransomed and themselves

not, though the money was forthcoming, they should make a disturbance

about it and the devil should prompt them to do something that might

injure Zoraida; for though their position might be sufficient to relieve

me from this apprehension, nevertheless I was unwilling to run any risk

in the matter; and so I had them ransomed in the same way as I was,

handing over all the money to the merchant so that he might with safety

and confidence give security; without, however, confiding our arrangement

and secret to him, which might have been dangerous.

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