the emperor's palace, and travelled to
the seashore, where he embarked.

But Allah chose to try him still more, chose to temper his spirit by
still further misfortune, and would not yet let him see the coast of
his fatherland. Another race of Franks, the English, were carrying on a
naval warfare with the emperor. They took away all of his ships that
they could capture; and so it happened that on the sixth day of
Almansor's voyage, his ship was surrounded by English vessels, and
fired into. The ship was forced to surrender, and all her people were
placed in a smaller ship that sailed away in company with the others.
Still it is fully as unsafe on the sea as in the desert, where the
robbers unexpectedly fall on caravans, and plunder and kill. A Tunisian
privateer attacked the small ship, that had been separated from the
larger ships by a storm, and captured it, and all the people on board
were taken to Algiers and sold.

Almansor was treated much better in slavery than were the Christians
who were captured with him, for he was a Mussulman; but still he had
lost all hopes of ever seeing his father again. He lived as the slave
of a rich man for five years, and did the work of a gardener. At the
end of that time, his rich master died without leaving any near heirs;
his possessions were broken up, his slaves were divided, and Almansor
fell into the hands of a slave-dealer, who had just fitted up a ship to
carry his slaves to another market, where he might sell them to
advantage. By chance I was also a slave of this dealer, and was put on
this ship together with Almansor. There we got acquainted with each
other, and there it was that he related to me his strange adventures.
But as we landed I was a witness of a most wonderful dispensation of
Allah. We had landed on the coast of Almansor's fatherland; it was the
market-place of his native city where we were put up for sale; and O,
Sire! to crown all this, it was his own, his dear father who bought
him!

The sheik, All Banu, was lost in deep thought over this story, which
had carried him along on the current of its events. His breast swelled,
his eye sparkled, and he was often on the point of interrupting his
young slave; but the end of the story disappointed him.

"He would be about twenty-one years old, you said?" began the sheik.

"Sire, he is of my age, from twenty-one to twenty-two years old."

"And what did he call the name of his native city? You did not tell u