or fellow, he had by that time learned that the violence of despair
could achieve nothing in the case of one on whose limbs heavy irons were
riveted, and whose frame was beginning to break down under the
protracted and repeated tortures to which it had been exposed.

Ah! how many wretched men had learned the same bitter lesson in the same
accursed city in days gone by--whose groans and cries, though unrecorded
by the pen of man, have certainly been inscribed in the book of God's
remembrance, and shall yet be brought into a brighter light than that of
terrestrial day!

Omar Dey was a man of energy and decision. The instant it became known
to him that England was at last stirred up to resent the insults which
had been heaped upon her and other nations by the Algerines, he set
about making preparations for defence on the vastest possible scale.

It was a sight worth seeing--though we cannot afford space to describe
it in detail--the hundreds of camels, horses, mules, and donkeys that
trooped daily into the city with provisions and _materiel_ of every
kind; the thousands of Arabs who by command flocked in from the
surrounding country to defend the city, and the hundreds of Christian
captives who, collected from the quarries, as well as from the fields,
gardens, and stables of their respective owners, were made to swarm like
bees upon the already formidable walls.

Some of the slaves were fettered; most of them, having been tamed, were
free. Some were strong, others were weak, not a few were dying, but all
were made to work and toil day and night, with just sufficient rest to
enable them to resume labour each morning. It was a woeful sight! A
sight which for centuries had been before the eyes of European
statesmen, but European statesmen had preferred that European peoples
should go on cutting each other's throats, and increasing their national
debts, rather than use their power and wealth to set their captive
brethren free; and it was not until the nineteenth century that England,
the great redresser of wrongs, put forth her strong hand to crush the
Pirate City.

While these busy preparations were going on, a terrible gale arose,
which did a good deal of damage to the harbour and shipping of Algiers,
and, among other peculiar side-influences, inscribed the name of the
French consul in the Dey's black book. Indeed, nearly all the consuls
had their place in that book now, for Omar had been chafed by the cloud
of lit