The circumstances of the wreck have been closely followed.  ‘M.  Arture’ actually saved Mademoiselle de Bourke, and placed her in the arms of the maitre d’hotel, who had reached a rock, together with the Abbe, the lackey, and one out of the four maids.  The other three were all in the cabin with their mistress and her son, and shared their fate.

The real ‘Arture’ tried to swim to the shore, but never was seen again, so that his adventures with the little boy are wholly imaginary.  But the little girl’s conduct is perfectly true.  When in the steward’s arms she declared that the savages might take her life, but never should make her deny her faith.

The account of these captors was a great difficulty, till in the old Universal History I found a description of Algeria which tallied wonderfully with the narrative.  It was taken from a survey of the coast made a few years later by English officials.

The tribe inhabiting Mounts Araz and Couco, and bordering on Djigheli Bay, were really wild Arabs, claiming high descent, but very loose Mohammedans, and savage in their habits.  Their name of Cabeleyzes is said—­with what truth I know not—­to mean ‘revolted,’ and they held themselves independent of the Dey.  They were in the habit of murdering or enslaving all shipwrecked travellers, except subjects of Algiers, whom they released with nothing but their lives.

All this perfectly explains the sufferings of Mademoiselle de Bourke.  The history of the plundering, the threats, the savage treatment of the corpses, the wild dogs, the councils of the tribe, the separation of the captives, and the child’s heroism, is all literally true—­the expedient of Victorine’s defence alone being an invention.  It is also true that the little girl and the maitre d’hotel wrote four letters, and sent them by different chances to Algiers, but only the last ever arrived, and it created a great sensation.

M. Dessault is a real personage, and the kindness of the Dey and of the Moors was exactly as related, also the expedient of sending the Marabout of Bugia to negotiate.

Mr. Thomas Thompson was really the English Consul at the time, but his share in the matter is imaginary, as it depends on Arthur’s adventures.

The account of the Marabout system comes from the Universal History; but the arrival, the negotiations, and the desire of the sheyk to detain the young French lady for a wife to his son, are from the narrative.  He really did claim to be an equal match for her, were she daughter of the King of France, since he was King of the Mountains.

The welcome at Algiers and the Te Deum in the Consul’s chapel also are related in the book that serves me for authority.  It adds that Mademoiselle de Bourke finally married a Marquis de B—­, and lived much respected in Provence, dying shortly before the Revolution.

I will only mention further that a rescued Abyssinian slave named Fareek (happily not tongueless) was well known to me many years ago in the household of the late Warden Barter of Winchester College.