kes very
good care of his own. But tell me, senor, how or with whom did Ricardo
come to this island?"

"He came," said Mahmoud, "with a corsair who had captured him in a
garden on the coast near Trapani, and along with him a damsel, whose
name I never thought of asking, though the corsair often spoke to me in
praise of her beauty. Ricardo remained hero some days with his master
until the latter went to visit the tomb of Mahomet, which is in the city
of Almedina,[77] and then Ricardo fell into such a sickness that his
master left him with me, as being my countryman, that I might take care
of him until the return of the pilgrim to Cyprus, should that happen; or
else I was to send Ricardo to Constantinople, when his master should
advise me of his arrival there. But heaven ordered it otherwise; for the
unfortunate Ricardo died in a few days, always invoking to the last the
name of one Leonisa, whom he had told me he loved more than his life and
soul. She had been drowned, he said, in the wreck of a galley on the
coast of the island of Pantanalea; and he never ceased to deplore her
death till his grief destroyed him, for that in fact was the only malady
I discovered in him."

[77] A mistake. The prophet's tomb is in Mecca. Medina was his
birthplace.

"Tell me, senor," said Leonisa, "in the conversations you had with the
other young man, did he sometimes name this Leonisa? Did he relate the
manner in which he and she and Ricardo were captured?"

"He did name her," replied Mahmoud, "and asked me if there had been
brought to this island a Christian of that name, of such and such
appearance; for if so he should like to ransom her, provided her owner
had been undeceived as to his notion that she was richer than she really
was, or should it chance that having enjoyed her, he held her in less
esteem. If her price did not exceed three or four hundred crowns, he
would pay it gladly, because he had once had some regard for her."

"It must have been very little," said Leonisa, "since it was worth no
more than four hundred crowns. Ricardo was more generous. Heaven forgive
her who was the cause of his death, and that was myself; for I am the
unhappy maiden whom he wept as dead, and God knows how I should rejoice
were he alive, that I might repay him by letting him see how I felt for
his misfortunes. Yes, senor, I am the little loved of Cornello, the
truly wept of Ricardo, whom various chances have brought to the
miserable state in