n of terror overspread his thin
haggard features, and he shrunk together as he retired quickly to the
remotest corner of his cell.

"A maniac, I fear," said Francisco in a low tone, observing that the Jew
regarded him with a look of pity.

"No, not quite mad," replied Bacri in the same low tone, "but sometimes
very near it, I think. Poor man, I know him well. He has been fifteen
years a prisoner in Algiers. When first brought here he was as fine a
specimen of a Genoese youth as I ever saw. His name is Lorenzo Benoni.
He was captured with his wife and two children, all of whom died before
the first year was out. Of course, although in the same city, he was
never again permitted to see wife or children. He was very dangerous at
first, attacking and nearly killing his guards whenever he got a chance,
and frequently attempting to take his own life, so that they were
obliged to make him work constantly in heavy irons, and, I need scarcely
add, bastinadoed and tortured him until his body became a mass of
bruises from head to foot. They subdued him, in the course of years, to
a condition of callous and brutal indifference to everything, and at
last his great strength began to give way. He is now considered
incapable of doing much injury to any one, and seems almost tamed. The
Turks think that this has been brought about by sickness and starvation;
it may be partly so, but I cannot help thinking that, despite the
contempt which, in a sudden burst of passion, he poured on it just now,
religion has something to do with it, for I have noticed a considerable
change in him since he began to listen to the voice of an old man who
has been a true friend of the poor slaves since long before I came here.
The old man professes, at least he teaches, your religion; but I know
not to what sect he belongs. Indeed, I think he belongs to none. This,
however, am I sure of, that he holds equally by our Scriptures and your
Testament as being the whole Word of God."

The three captives listened to this narration with sinking hearts, for
it opened up a glimpse of the terrible and hopeless future that lay
before themselves, so that for some time they sat gazing in silence at
their visitor, and at the miserable beings who were devouring the last
crumbs of their black bread around them.

"I came to see you," continued Bacri, "partly to assure you of the
comparative safety of the girls who interested us all so much on board
the vessel of