y the spectators, struck them all with
amazement. The chief justice and the vicar-general immediately demanded
what was all this ado, who was this stranger, and what marriage was this
they talked about. Isabella's father replied, that what they had seen
was the sequel of a story which required a different place for the
telling of it; therefore, he begged that all who desired to hear it
should turn back to his house, which was close by, and there he would
fully satisfy their curiosity, and fill them with wonder at the strange
things he should relate.

Just then one of the crowd cried out, "Senors, this young man is the
great English corsair. It is not much more than two years since he took
from the Algerine corsairs the great Portuguese galleon from the Indies.
There is not the least doubt that he is the very man; I know him,
because he set me at liberty, and gave me money to carry me to Spain,
and not me only, but three hundred other captives likewise." These words
increased the general excitement and the desire to see all these
intricate matters cleared up. Finally, the principal persons of the
city, with the chief justice and the vicar-general, went back with
Isabella to her father's house, leaving the nuns sorely discomfited, and
crying with vexation at the loss they had sustained in not having the
beautiful Isabella to grace their nunnery. The company being arrived at
the house of Isabella's father, she made them be seated in a long hall,
and though Richard would willingly have taken it upon himself to tell
his story, yet he thought it better to trust it to Isabella's tongue
than to his own, which was not very expert in speaking Spanish.
Accordingly she began her narration in the midst of profound silence and
attention.

She related all that happened to her from the day when Clotald carried
her off from Cadiz until her return thither; also Richard's engagement
with the Turks; his liberality to the Christians; the promise they had
given each other to be husband and wife; the two years' delay agreed on,
and the news she had received of his death, which seemed to her so
certain, as to have nearly occasioned her taking the veil! She extolled
the liberality of the queen of England, the Christian faith of Richard
and his parents, and she concluded by saying, that Richard would relate
what had happened to him since he left London until that moment, when he
stood before them in the dress of a captive, and with the mark of