“The Turks believed what the captive told them:  interest got the better of their resentment, and they returned next morning with a flag of peace.  I passed a night of the greatest anguish, not so much from the pain of my wounds, as from thinking of the danger in which my fair and cruel enemy was placed among those barbarians.  When we arrived at the town one galley entered the port, the other remained in the offing.  The Christian inhabitants lined the whole shore, and the effeminate Cornelio stood watching from a distance what was going on in the galley.  My steward immediately came to treat for my ransom, and I told him on no account to bargain for it but for that of Leonisa, for which he should offer all I was worth.  I furthermore ordered him to return to shore, and toll Leonisa’s parents that they might leave it to him to treat for their daughter’s liberation, and give themselves no trouble about the matter.

“The chief captain, who was a Greek renegade named Yusuf, demanded six thousand crowns for Leonisa and four thousand for me, adding that he would not give up the one without the other.  He asked this large sum, as I afterwards ascertained, because he was in love with Leonisa, and did not wish to ransom her, but to give me and a thousand crowns to boot to the other captain, with whom he was bound to share equally whatever prizes they made, and to keep Leonisa for himself as valued at five thousand crowns.  It was for this reason that he appraised us both at ten thousand.

“Leonisa’s parents made no offer at all, relying on my promise, nor did Cornelio so much as open his lips on the matter.  After much bargaining my steward agreed to pay five thousand crowns for Leonisa and three for me, and Yusuf accepted this offer at the persuasion of the other captain and of all his men.  But as my agent had not so large an amount in ready money, he asked for three days to get it in, being resolved to expend all I possessed rather than fail to rescue us.  Yusuf was glad of this, thinking that something might possibly occur in the interval to prevent the completion of the bargain, and he departed for the isle of Fabiana, saying that in three days he would return for the money.  But fortune, never weary of persecuting me, ordained that a Turkish sentinel descried from the highest point of the island, far out at sea, six vessels which appeared to be either the Maltese squadron or one belonging to Sicily.  He ran down to give warning, and as quick as thought the Turks who were on shore, some cooking their dinners, some washing their linen, embarked again, heaved anchor, got out their oars, hoisted sail, and heading in the direction of Barbary, in less than two hours lost sight of the galleys.  I leave you to conjecture, friend Mahmoud, what I suffered in that voyage, so contrary to my expectation, and more when we arrived the following day at the south-west of the isle of Pantanalea.  There the Turks landed, and the two captains began to divide all the prizes they had made.  All this was for me a lingering death.