I had to confess that it was lost."

"But lost from no fault of your own," Caretto put in.

"The losing was not indeed from any fault of my own, and had the pirate
thrown it into the sea I should have held myself free from disgrace; but
as it was still in existence, and I knew its possessor, I was bound in
honour to recover it. At the time Suleiman Ali's messenger arrived the
corsair was away, and there was no saying when his ship would return;
therefore, I decided at once not to accept the offer of freedom. Had it
not been for that, I own that I should have done so, for I knew that
I could repay Suleiman from the revenues of my commandery, which would
have accumulated in my absence; but if I had had to wait ten years
longer to regain the gage, I felt that I was in honour bound to do so.
It was, in fact, some six months before the corsair put into that port
again. The moment he did so I carried out the plans I had long before
determined upon. I obtained a disguise from Ben Ibyn, and by a ruse
succeeded in inducing the pirate to meet me outside the town, believing
that I was an Arab chief who wished to dispose of some valuable slave
girls he had brought in. I had with me one of my old galley slaves, who
had been taken into Ben Ibyn's employment; and when the pirate came up
with two of his crew, and furiously attacked me as soon as I threw off
my disguise, it would have gone hard with me had he not stood by me, and
killed one of them who was about to attack me in the rear. I slew the
other and Hassan, and the gage is in its place again."

CHAPTER XXI THE FORT OF ST. NICHOLAS

"Well, you have proved indeed," Caretto said, when Gervaise finished his
story, "that you are worthy of the bestowal of a gage by a fair damsel.
I do not think that many knights, however true they might be to the
donor, would have suffered months of slavery in order to regain a token,
lost by no fault or carelessness of their own; and no lady could have
blamed or held them in any way dishonoured by the loss."

"I had a message by the Viscount De Monteuil from Lady Claudia the other
day, saying that she trusted I had kept her gage. I can assure you that
the six months of slavery were cheaply purchased by the pleasure I felt
that I still possessed it; and I was glad, too, to learn that I had not
been forgotten by her."

"Of that you may well assure yourself, Tresham; my commandery is not far
from Genoa, and I was frequently with her, but ne