him down!" So saying, he drew his scimitar, and sprang furiously upon
Gervaise. The latter stepped back into the centre of the gateway, so as
to prevent the men, who had also drawn their swords, passing to attack
him from behind. He had undone the clasp of his bernouse, and allowed it
to fall to the ground as he addressed Hassan, and his long sword flashed
in the moonlight as the corsair sprang forward.

Hassan was a good swordsman, and his ferocious bravery had rendered him
one of the most dreaded of the Moorish rovers. Inferior in strength to
Gervaise, he was as active as a cat, and he leapt back with the spring
of a panther, avoiding the sweeping blow with which Gervaise had hoped
to finish the conflict at once; the latter found himself therefore
engaged in a desperate fight with his three assailants. So furiously did
they attack him that, foot by foot, he was forced to give ground. As he
stepped through the gateway one of the pirates sprang past him, but as
he did so, a figure leapt out from beyond the wall, and plunged a dagger
into his back, while at the same moment, by cutting down another pirate,
Gervaise rid himself of one of his assailants in front; but as he did
so, he himself received a severe wound on the left shoulder from Hassan,
who, before he could again raise his weapon, sprang upon him, and tried
to hurl him to the ground.

Gervaise's superior weight saved him from falling, though he staggered
back some paces; then his heel caught against a stone, and he fell,
dragging Hassan to the ground with him. Tightly clasped in each other's
arms, they rolled over and over. Gervaise succeeded at last in getting
the upper hand, but as he did so Hassan twisted his right arm free,
snatched the dagger from Gervaise's girdle, and struck furiously at him.
Gervaise, who had half risen to his knees, was unable to avoid the
blow, but threw himself forward, his weight partly pinning the corsair s
shoulders to the ground, and the blow passed behind him, inflicting but
a slight wound in the back; then, with his right hand, which was now
free, he grasped Hassan by the throat with a grip of iron. The pirate
struggled convulsively for a moment, then his left hand released his
grasp of his opponent's wrist. A minute later Gervaise rose to his feet:
the pirate was dead.

Gervaise stooped and raised the fallen man's head from the ground, felt
for the chain, pulled up Claudia's gage, and placed it round his own
neck; then he t