his companion, "they know that you are a cousin of the
Bearnais, they will most likely send you to the Holy Bonfire, especially
as you are of too light weight to row in the galley, at any rate."

The Abbe John cried out against this. He was as good as any man, in the
galley or elsewhere.

"In intent, yes," said the Scot, "but your weight is as nothing to
Hamal's or even mine, when it comes to pulling at fifty foot of oar on
an upper deck!"

The Duke of Err was a young nobleman who had early ruined himself by
evil life. The memory rankled, so that sometimes the very devil of
cruelty seemed to ride him. He would order the most brutal acts for
sport, and laugh afterwards as they threw the dead slaves over, hanging
crucifixes, Korans, or Genevan Bibles about their necks in mockery
according to their creed.

"My galley is lighter by so much carrion!" he would say on such
occasions.

It chanced that in the late autumn, when the great heats were beginning
to abate and the equinoctials had not yet begun to blow on that exposed
eastern coast of Spain, that for a private reason the Duke-Captain
desired to be at Tarragona by nightfall. So all that day the slaves were
driven by the "executioners"--as the Duke invariably named his
"comites"--till they prayed for death.

Although it was a known sea and a time of peace the slaves were allowed
no quarter--that is, one half rowing while the other rested. All were
forced most mercilessly through a long day's agony of heat and labour.

"Strike, _bourreau_--strike!" cried the captain incessantly; "what else
are you paid the King's good money for? If we do not get to Tarragona by
four o'clock this afternoon, I will have you hung from the yardarm. So
you are warned. If you cannot animate, you can terrorise. Once I saw a
'comite' in the galleys of Malta cut off a slave's arm, and beat the
other dogs about the head with it till they doubled their speed!"

It was in order to give a certain entertainment at Tarragona that the
Duke of Err was so eager to get there. For hardly had the _Conquistador_
anchored, before the great sail was down, the fore-rudder unshipped, the
after part of the deck cleared, and a gay marquee spread, with tables
set out underneath for a banquet.

By this time, what with the freshness of the sea and fear of missing a
stroke occasionally--a crime always relentlessly punished--the men were
so fatigued with the heat, the toil, and the bruising of their chests
up