hey could
not wield their weapons, and so were taken, when they intended rather to
have died, except only the master's mate, who shrank from the fight like
a notable coward.

[Illustration]

But so it was, and the Turks were victors, though they had little cause
of triumph. Then it would have grieved any hard heart to see these
infidels wantonly ill-treating the Christians, who were no sooner in
the galleys than their garments were torn from their backs, and they set
to the oars.

I will make no mention of their miseries, being now under their enemies'
raging stripes, their bodies distressed with too much heat, and also
with too much cold; but I will rather show the deliverance of those who,
being in great misery, continually trust in God, with a steadfast hope
that He will deliver them.

Near the city of Alexandria, being a harbour, there is a ship-road, very
well defended by strong walls, into which the Turks are accustomed to
bring their galleys every winter, and there repair them and lay them up
against the spring. In this road there is a prison, in which the
captives and all those prisoners who serve in the galleys are confined
till the sea be calm again for voyaging, every prisoner being most
grievously laden with irons on his legs, giving him great pain. Into
this prison all these Christians were put, and fast guarded all the
winter, and every winter. As time passed the master and the owner were
redeemed by friends; but the rest were left in misery, and
half-starved--except John Foxe, who being a somewhat skilful barber,
made shift now and then, by means of his craft, to help out his fare
with a good meal. Till at last God sent him favour in the sight of the
keeper of the prison, so that he had leave to go in and out to the road,
paying a stipend to the keeper, and wearing a lock about his leg. This
liberty six more had, on the same conditions; for after their long
imprisonment, it was not feared that they would work any mischief
against the Turks.

In the winter of the year 1577, all the galleys having reached port, and
their masters and mariners being at their own homes, the ships
themselves being stripped of their masts and sails, there were in the
prison two hundred and sixty-eight Christian captives, belonging to
sixteen different nations. Among these were three Englishmen, one of
them John Foxe, the others William Wickney and Robert Moore. And John
Foxe, now having been thirteen or fourteen years und