must first go back to Rhodes, after
which he will ask for leave, and return here. We have a banquet tomorrow
evening to celebrate his return, and earnestly hoped that you would be
present, but, since you say that you do not care for such gaieties,
we shall, if you prefer it, be glad if you will come to join us at our
family meal at twelve."

"Thank you, countess, I should very greatly prefer it, and it will give
me real pleasure to come."

"Your friend, Sir Ralph Harcourt, has been telling us how you have
destroyed the corsair fleet that has been so alarming us. He, too, is an
Englishman, though he speaks Italian well."

"Yes, he speaks it a great deal better than I do," Gervaise said. "He is
a dear friend of mine, and it is, indeed, chiefly owing to his support
and influence that I have been able to manage so pleasantly and well in
the command of a body of young knights, most of whom are my seniors."

"He tells us that you speak Turkish?"

"Yes; I thought that it would be very useful, and spent nearly a year in
acquiring it, the bailiff of my langue being kind enough to relieve
me of all other duties. I was fortunate enough to find in one of the
servants of the auberge a well educated and widely informed Turk, who
was a very pleasant companion, as well as an excellent instructor, and I
learnt much from him besides his language. The knowledge of Turkish has
already proved to me most useful, and was indeed the means by which
I obtained both my commandery and my appointment as captain of the
galley."

"Perhaps you will tell us the story tomorrow; that is, if it is too long
to tell us now?"

"It is indeed much too long; but if it will interest you I shall be glad
to recount it tomorrow."

The next day Gervaise went to the palace of the Countess Da Forli. She
was a widow with no children, except Claudia, the young daughter who
had accompanied her to the fete the evening before. Caretto, and four
or five relations of the family, were the only guests beside himself. It
was a quiet and sociable meal, and served with less ceremony than usual,
as the countess wished to place Gervaise as much as possible at his
ease. During the meal but little was said about the affair with the
pirates, Caretto telling them some of his experiences as a captive.

"It is well, Claudia," he said, laughing, "that you did not see me at
the time I was rescued, for I was such a scarecrow that you would never
have been able to regard me with