‘My beads, my breviary,’ sighed the Abbe.  ‘Get them for me, Lanty.’

‘I wish they would end it quickly,’ said Estelle.  ’My head aches so, and I want to be with mamma.  Poor Victorine! yours is worse,’ she added, and soaked her handkerchief in the few drops of water left in the gourd to lay it on the maid’s forehead.

The howling and shrieking betokened consultation, but was suddenly interrupted by some half-grown lads, who came running in with their hands full of what Lanty recognised to his horror as garments worn by his mistress and fellow-servants, also a big kettle and a handspike.  They pointed down to the sea, and with yells of haste and exultation all the wild conclave started up to snatch, handle, and examine, then began rushing headlong to the beach.  Hassan’s explanations were scarcely needed to show that they were about to ransack the ship, and he evidently took credit to himself for having induced them to spare the prisoners in case their assistance should be requisite to gain full possession of the plunder.

Estelle and Victorine were committed to the charge of a forbidding-looking old hag, the mother of the sheyk of the party; the Abbe was allowed to stray about as he pleased, but the two men were driven to the shore by the eloquence of the club.  Victorine revived enough for a burst of tears and a sobbing cry, ’Oh, they will be killed!  We shall never see them again!’

‘No,’ said Estelle, with her quiet yet childlike resolution, ’they are not going to kill any of us yet.  They said so.  You are so tired, poor Victorine!  Now all the hubbub is over, suppose you lie still and sleep.  My uncle,’ as he roamed round her, mourning for his rosary, ’I am afraid your beads are lost; but see here, these little round seeds, I can pierce them if you will gather some more for me, and make you another set.  See, these will be the Aves, and here are shells in the grass for the Paters.’

The long fibre of grass served for the string, and the sight of the Giaour girl’s employment brought round her all the female population who had not repaired to the coast.  Her first rosary was torn from her to adorn an almost naked baby; but the Abbe began to whimper, and to her surprise the mother restored it to him.  She then made signs that she would construct another necklace for the child, and she was rewarded by a gourd being brought to her full of milk, which she was able to share with her two companions, and which did something to revive poor Victorine.  Estelle was kept threading these necklaces and bracelets all the wakeful hours of the day—­for every one fell asleep about noon—­though still so jealous a watch was kept on her that she was hardly allowed to shift her position so as to get out of the sun, which even at that season was distressingly scorching in the middle of the day.