dom no less than two hundred Christian captives, among them the
cavaliers Giacomo da Vinci, Pietro Forzi, and myself."

"In the name of the Republic, Sir Gervaise Tresham, and I may say in
that of all Italy, I thank you most heartily for the splendid service
that you have rendered us. It would have seemed to me well nigh
incredible that a single galley, even if commanded and manned by the
most famous knights of your great Order, should have accomplished so
extraordinary a feat. Still more strange is it that it should have been
performed by so young a knight, with a crew composed, as Sir Fabricius
Caretto has told us, of knights chosen from among the youngest of the
Order."

"You give far more credit to us, your Highness, than we deserve,"
Gervaise replied. "Three of the ships were indeed captured in fair
fight, but we caught the rest asleep and massed together as to be
incapable of successful resistance, and they fell easy victims to the
fire ships we launched against them. Any credit that is due to me is
shared equally by my subcommander here, Sir Ralph Harcourt, and indeed
by every knight of my company."

"This, doubtless, may be so, Sir Gervaise," the doge said, with a slight
smile, "but it is to the head that plans, rather than to the hand that
strikes, that such success as you have achieved is due; and the credit
of this night attack is, as the cavalier Caretto tells me, wholly yours,
for until you issued your final orders it seemed to him, and to the two
good knights his companions, that there was naught to do but to remain
in port and watch this corsair fleet sail away to carry out its work of
destruction."

By this time they had reached the poop of the galley. Gervaise now
called forward the knights one by one, and presented them to the doge,
who expressed to them all the gratitude felt by himself and the whole of
the citizens of Genoa for the service they had rendered to the Republic.
This ceremony being over, the knights broke up their ranks and conversed
for a few minutes with those who had come on board with the doge. The
latter then took his place in the barge with his companions, inviting
Gervaise and Ralph to accompany him. As the barge left the side of the
galley, which followed closely behind her, the guns again thundered
out their welcome, and a roar of greeting rose from the inhabitants. On
landing, the party waited until the knights had joined them, and
then proceeded up the street to the ducal p