should be glad, sir,
if you will allow that the time should begin to count afresh from our
present start. We have really had but a short period of service, for we
wasted a week at Genoa, and ten days on our journey back here, so that
we have had really no more than a month's active service."

"Yes, if you count only by time," D'Aubusson said, with a smile.
"Reckoning by results, you have done a good five years' cruise. However,
so small a request can certainly be granted. The places of the two
knights who were killed, and of four others whose wounds are reported
to me as being too severe for them to be fit for service for some time,
shall be filled up at once from the langues to which each belonged. You
will cruise among the Western islands, whence complaints have reached us
of a corsair who has been plundering and burning. Sometimes he is heard
of as far north as Negropont, at others he is off the south of the
Morea; then, again, we hear of him among the Cyclades. We have been
unwilling to despatch another galley, for there is ample employment for
every one here. After the blow you have struck on the Moorish corsairs,
they are likely to be quiet for a little. You had best, therefore, try
for a time if you cannot come across this pirate. You must let me know
how much you paid for the vessels you used as fire ships, and to the
Sards; this is an expense chargeable to the general service. I may tell
you that to me it is due that no recognition of your exploits, such as
that which Genoa bestowed upon you, will be made. At the council this
morning it was urged that some signal mark of honour should be granted;
but I interposed, saying that you had already received exceptional
promotion, and that it would not be for your good, or that of the
Order, for so young a knight to be raised to an official position of
a character usually held by seniors, and that I was perfectly sure
you would prefer remaining in command of your galley to any promotion
whatever that would retain you on the Island."

"Indeed I should, your Highness. I wish to gain experience and to do
service to the Order, and so far from pleasing me, promotion would
trouble and distress me, and, could it have been done, I would most
gladly have sent home the prizes, instead of going to Genoa, and would
myself have continued the cruise."

"So the Cavalier Caretto told me," the grand master replied. "Very well,
then. In three days you shall set out again. The admiral