“Never did I think, never could I imagine, beauteous Leonisa,” replied Ricardo, “that you could ever ask anything of me with which I should find it impossible to comply; but this present request of yours has undeceived me.  Is the inclination so slight a thing that it can be moved this way or that at pleasure?  Or would it become a man of truth and honour to feign in matters of such weight?  If you think that such things can or ought to be done, be it as you will, since it is for you to command and for me to obey; and that it may not be said I failed to do so with regard to the first order you laid upon me, I will impose silence on the voice of my honour, and will pretend to return Halima’s passion, as you desire, if I may thereby secure the blessing of seeing you; and you have only to signify as much to her in such terms as you shall think proper.  In return for this sacrifice, to me the greatest possible, I entreat you to tell me briefly how you escaped from the hands of the corsairs, and fell into those of the Jew who sold you.”

“The recital of my misfortunes,” Leonisa answered, “demands more time than we have now at our disposal; nevertheless, I will tell you some particulars.  The day after we parted company, Yusuf’s galley was driven back by a contrary wind to the island of Pantanalea, where we also saw your galley, but ours, in spite of all efforts, was driven upon the rocks.  My master, seeing death so near, quickly emptied two water-casks, closed them tightly, lashed them together with ropes, and placed me between them.  Then stripping off his clothes he took another cask in his arms, and passing round his body a rope attached to the casks on which I was placed, he boldly plunged into the sea.  I had not the courage to follow his example, but another Turk pushed me in.  I fell senseless into the water, and did not recover until I found myself on land, in the arms of two Turks, who held me with my mouth downwards, discharging a great quantity of water which I had swallowed.  I opened my eyes, and looking wildly round me, the first thing I saw was Yusuf lying beside me with his skull shattered, having, as I afterwards learned, been dashed head foremost against the rocks.

“The Turks told me that they had hawled me ashore by the rope, more dead than alive.  Only eight persons escaped out of the unfortunate galley.  We remained eight days on the island, during which the Turks treated me with as much respect as if I were their sister.  We lay hid in a cave, the Turks being afraid of being captured by some of the Christian garrison of a fort in the island, and we supported ourselves with biscuits from the foundered galley which the waves cast ashore, and which the men collected by night.  It happened for my misfortune that the commandant of the fort had died a few days before, and that there were in it only twenty soldiers; this fact we learned from a boy whom the Turks captured as he was amusing himself gathering shells on the shore.