cted his ransom for about L100 of English money of the time, and
Miguel de Cervantes, after five years of captivity, was once more
free. As has been well said, if _Don Quixote_ and all else of his had
never been written, "the proofs we have here of his greatness of soul,
constancy, and cheerfulness, under the severest of trials which a man
could endure, would be sufficient to ensure him lasting fame."[75]

[Illustration: FATHERS OF THE REDEMPTION.

(_Dan, Hist. de Barbarie, 1637._)]

Slavery in private houses, shops, and farms, was tolerable or
intolerable according to the character and disposition of the master
and of the slaves. Some were treated as members of the family, save
in their liberty, as is the natural inclination of Moslems towards the
slaves of their own religion; others were cursed and beaten, justly or
unjustly, and lived a dog's life. Those who were supposed to be able
to pay a good ransom were for a time especially ill-treated, in the
hope of compelling them to send for their money. Escape was rare: the
risk was too great, and the chances too small.

Thousands of Christian slaves meant tens of thousand of Christian
sympathisers, bereaved parents and sisters, sorrowing children and
friends; and it is easy to imagine what efforts were made to procure
the release of their unhappy relatives in captivity. At first it was
extremely difficult to open negotiations with the Corsairs; but when
nation after nation appointed consuls to watch over their interests at
Algiers and Tunis, there was a recognized medium of negotiation of
which the relations took advantage. As will presently be seen, the
office of consul in those days carried with it little of the power or
dignity that becomes it now, and the efforts of the consul were often
abortive.

There were others than consuls, however, to help in the good work. The
freeing of captives is a Christian duty, and at the close of the
twelfth century Jean de Matha, impressed with the unhappy fate of the
many Christians who languished in the lands of the infidels, founded
the "Order of the Holy Trinity and Redemption of Captives." The
convent of S. Mathurin at Paris was immediately bestowed upon the
Order, another was built at Rome on the Coelian Hill, another called
Cerfroy near Meaux, and others in many countries, even as far as the
Indies. Pope Innocent the Third warmly supported the pious design, and
wrote a Latin letter recommending the Redemptionists to the pro