sides lowered their
arms, looked upon and recognised each other, for they had all served
under one captain and one flag. Confounded by the cadi's words, and by
their conscious criminality, they sheathed their blades, and seemed
quite discomfited. Ali alone shut his eyes and his ears to everything,
and rushing upon the cadi, dealt him such a stroke on the head with his
scimetar, that, but for the hundred ells of stuff that formed his
turban, he would certainly have cleft it in two. As it was, he knocked
the cadi down among the rower's benches, where he lay, exclaiming amid
his groans, "O cruel renegade! Enemy of the Prophet! Can it be that
there is no true mussulman left to avenge me? Accursed one! to lay
violent hands on thy cadi, on a minister of Mahomet!"

The cadi's denunciations made a strong impression on the minds of
Hassan's soldiers, who, fearing besides that Ali's men would despoil
them of the booty they already looked upon as their own, determined to
put all to the hazard of battle. Suddenly they fell upon Ali's men with
such vehemence that, although the latter were the stronger party, they
soon thinned their numbers considerably; the survivors, however, quickly
rallied, and so well avenged their slaughtered comrades, that barely
four of Hassan's men remained alive, and those too badly wounded.
Ricardo and Mahmoud, who had been watching the fight, putting their
heads out every now and then at the cabin hatchway, seeing now that most
of the Turks were dead, and the survivors all wounded, and that they
might very easily be mastered, called upon Halima's father and two of
his nephews to aid them in seizing the vessel. Then arming themselves
with the dead men's scimetars, they rushed amidships, shouting "Liberty!
Liberty!" and with the help of the stout Christian rowers, they soon
despatched all the Turks. Then they boarded Ali Pasha's galley. He had
been one of the first slain in the last conflict, a Turk having cut him
down in revenge for the cadi, and the galley being defenceless, they
took possession of it with all its stores.

By Ricardo's advice, all the valuables on board the brigantine and
Hassan's galley were transhipped to Ali's, that being the largest of the
three vessels, with plenty of stowage room, and a good sailer. The
rowers, too, were Christians, and being highly delighted with the
acquisition of their freedom, and with the gifts which Ricardo liberally
divided amongst them, they offered to car