e has, as all will allow,
well justified the choice. It was because it was deemed inexpedient
to place knights many years his senior under his command, and partly,
perhaps, to encourage the younger knights, by giving them an exceptional
opportunity of distinguishing themselves, that the crew was chosen
entirely from their ranks. I was selected as second in command because
Gervaise and I had been special friends when we came out from England in
the same ship, and had before fought side by side against the Moslems."

"I see that you wear gilded spurs, Sir Ralph," another lady said; "you
must therefore be a dubbed knight?"

"Yes; I had the good fortune to be knighted by D'Aubusson himself, at
the same time that Sir Gervaise was also so honoured. It was for an
affair with the Turkish pirates. It was Gervaise who really won the
honour, for I had no share in the affair, save that of doing my best in
the fight."

"And who could do more?" the countess queried.

"Gervaise could do more, Countess, as was shown in that attack on the
corsairs by means of fire ships. He has a head to plan, and, in the case
I speak of, a happy thought of his not only saved the lives of ourselves
and Sir John Boswell, but, indirectly, was the means of preventing two
of our galleys being captured by the corsairs."

"Which is Sir Gervaise?" one of the ladies asked.

Ralph smiled.

"Look round the hall, signoras, and see if any of you can pick him out
from the rest of us."

The ladies looked round the hall.

"There are only about twenty here; the rest are in the other rooms. Do
not set us to work guessing, if he is not in sight, Sir Ralph."

"Oh yes, he is in sight. Now do each of you fix on the one you think
most accords with your ideas of what a knight, brave in action and wise
and prudent in council, would be like."

The six ladies each fixed on one of the young knights.

"You are all wrong," said Ralph.

"How can we choose?" the countess said laughingly, "when none of them
resemble our ideal hero? Most of them are pleasant and courtly looking
youths, but as yet there is scarce a vestige of hair on their faces,
and one could not fancy any of them as the destroyer of the fleet of
corsairs."

"Do you see the one speaking to the elderly lady in the recess?"

"Yes; she is the wife of Fragoso. You do not mean to say that that lad
is the commander of the galley? Why, he looks the youngest of you all."

"He is between seventeen and eighte