end, and he found
that his duties included supervision of Turkish slaves, he felt the want
of a knowledge of the language, and from that time devoted an hour a day
to its study, employing one of the servants of the auberge, who was a
man of rank and education at home, to instruct him.

While he conscientiously spent this amount of time at the work, it was
the most disagreeable portion of this day's labour. The events, however,
that had taken place during the expedition had impressed him greatly
with the utility of a knowledge of Turkish, for had it not been for Sir
John Boswell's possessing some acquaintance with the language, it would
have been impossible to communicate with the rowers of their boat, or
to have arranged the plan by which they had escaped the pirates. He had
then and there determined that as soon as he returned to Rhodes he would
take the matter up in a very different spirit to that in which he before
approached it. He had on the way home spoken to Sir John, who had highly
approved of the determination.

"I myself, when I was a young knight of eighteen, was taken captive,
twenty-six years ago, at the time when the Egyptian fleet appeared
before Rhodes. Our galleys advanced to attack them, but under cover of
night they retired, and proceeding to the mainland took shelter under
the guns of a Turkish fort. We attacked them there; it was a desperate
engagement, but without any decisive advantage on either side. We lost
no less than sixty knights, the Egyptians seven hundred men; and their
fleet returned to Egypt. I and three others who were left wounded on the
deck of one of their ships we had boarded, but failed to capture, were
carried to Egypt, and remained there captive for six months, when we
were ransomed by the Order.

"During that time I learnt enough of their language, which is akin to
Turkish, to be able to make myself understood and to understand what was
said to me. I have kept up that much for intercourse with the slaves
and servants at Rhodes, and have found it very useful. I consider, then,
that you will do well to acquire their tongue; it will be useful not
only to yourself, but to others, and when we get back I will, if you
like, ask the bailiff to free you from all duty in order that you may
devote yourself to it."

The head of the langue at once granted Sir John's request.

"I would," he said, "that more of our young knights would give a portion
of their time to study; but most of th