e French Ambassador, who was then in high favour at the
Porte, I found there, living under the protection of his Family, a Lady,
who was no other than my dear Wife Lilias, and with her a Daughter,
called after her own name, who was now twelve years of age. Her History,
as she related it to me, was brief, but amazing. Both her Father and the
Cardinal died about two years after her return from Captivity; but she
found a new guardian in my old friend Captain Night, or Don Ercolo
Sparafucile di San Lorenzo, the Knight of Malta, who had retired from
that Island to end his days in France. She was enabled to cheer the
declining years of that Gallant Gentleman, who had preserved a lively
remembrance of his old _Protege_, Jack Dangerous; and when he died, he
left her the whole of his large fortune. All these years she had
remained in a dreadful state of uncertainty, till, through the kind
offices of the French Minister of Police, she was made acquainted with
the last dying avowal of a Pirate Renegado, named Sparkenhoe, who had
expired at the Galleys of Marseille, and stated that, in the year 1759,
he had conveyed a refugee Christian Slave from Algiers to
Constantinople, where he had been sold to a Merchant of Damascus. In the
almost desperate hope of discovering some Tidings of me, my Wife and
Child had journeyed to the Porte, where they were most kindly received
at the French Embassy. They had given up almost every prospect of
meeting me again, when I made my sudden appearance in the strange Guise
of a Turkish Bashaw.

Under ordinary Circumstances, it might have gone hard with me; for the
Turks reckon it as an unpardonable crime for a Christian to assume the
Mussulman Garb, and conform outwardly to that religion, without having
gone through the Proper Rites. However, as I have said, the French
Ambassador was just then in high favour with the Porte. He made interest
with the Captain Bashaw, the Kislar Aga, and the Grand Vizier himself.
The services I had rendered to the Great Turk by suppressing the
Insurrection at Broussa were taken into consideration; and it was at
length agreed, that if I would convey myself away privately, and take my
Wife with me, no more should be said about the matter. It was given out
at Broussa that I had been appointed to another and more distant
Government; and he who had been Vizier to the unlucky Fat Man got his
much-coveted Preferment, and, I have no doubt, was very happy in it,
till the inevitable