ivity. Of course, as the captain afterwards told me, we might
have gone home to England, and laid the state of the case before the
Government; and after a year or so spent in diplomatising, the poor
fellow, if he was still alive, might have been released, or the Emperor
of Morocco might have declared that he could not find him, or that he
was dead; and thus he would have remained on, like many others, in
captivity.

There was a little light from the moon, which enabled me to mark the
outlines of the house I was leaving, as well as to find my way. Two
servants were stationed in the entrance passage, but they had wrapped
themselves up in their haiks and gone soundly to sleep, so I stepped
over their bodies without waking them. Every person about the house,
indeed, seemed to have gone to sleep, but the dogs were more faithful
than the human beings, and some of them barked furiously as I walked
along. They were either chained or locked up, and finding my footsteps
going from them, they were soon silent. At length I reached the shed I
was in search of. It was near a cottage, with several other similar
sheds in the neighbourhood. As I came to the entrance, a voice said--

"Come in; but speak low."

At first I could see no one, but on going further in, I discovered the
object of my search sitting in a corner on a heap of straw. He was
chained there, and could not move.

"It gives me new life to see a countryman here, and one who wants to
help me," said the poor fellow. "I thought all the world had deserted
me, and that I should be left to die in this strange land, among worse
than heathens, who treat me as a dog; or that I should be tempted to
give up my faith and turn Mohammedan, as others have done."

I cannot repeat all our conversation. At last an idea struck me.

"I'll tell you what," said I; "just do you pretend to be mad, and play
all sorts of strange pranks, and do all the mischief you can; and then
the captain will propose to buy you, and perhaps the old Moor will sell
you a bargain, and be glad to be rid of you."

"A very good idea," he answered. "But here am I chained up like a dog,
and how am I to get free?"

"No fear," said I, producing a knife which Peter had given me,
containing all sorts of implements, and among them a file. "You shall
soon be at liberty, at all events."

Accordingly I set to work, and in less than an hour I had filed the
chain from off his legs. While we were filing away