“Will you please to follow me into this courtyard?” Gervaise said.  He had, while waiting, reconnoitred the neighbourhood, and found an enclosure with the walls still perfect, and had determined to bring Hassan there, in order to prevent him from taking to flight.  Hassan entered it unsuspectingly, followed by his two men.  Gervaise fell back a little, so as to place himself between them and the entrance.  Then he threw back the hood of his bernouse.

“Do you recognise me, Hassan?” he said sternly.  “I am the captive whom you beat almost to death.  I told you that some day I would kill you; but even now I am willing to forgive you and to allow you to depart in peace, if you will restore the amulet you took from me.”

The corsair gave a howl of rage.

“Christian dog!” he exclaimed.  “You thought to lead me into a trap, but you have fallen into one yourself.  You reckoned that I should come alone; but I suspected there was something hidden behind the story of that black, and so brought two of my crew with me.  Upon him, men!  Cut him down!” So saying, he drew his scimitar, and sprang furiously upon Gervaise.  The latter stepped back into the centre of the gateway, so as to prevent the men, who had also drawn their swords, passing to attack him from behind.  He had undone the clasp of his bernouse, and allowed it to fall to the ground as he addressed Hassan, and his long sword flashed in the moonlight as the corsair sprang forward.

Hassan was a good swordsman, and his ferocious bravery had rendered him one of the most dreaded of the Moorish rovers.  Inferior in strength to Gervaise, he was as active as a cat, and he leapt back with the spring of a panther, avoiding the sweeping blow with which Gervaise had hoped to finish the conflict at once; the latter found himself therefore engaged in a desperate fight with his three assailants.  So furiously did they attack him that, foot by foot, he was forced to give ground.  As he stepped through the gateway one of the pirates sprang past him, but as he did so, a figure leapt out from beyond the wall, and plunged a dagger into his back, while at the same moment, by cutting down another pirate, Gervaise rid himself of one of his assailants in front; but as he did so, he himself received a severe wound on the left shoulder from Hassan, who, before he could again raise his weapon, sprang upon him, and tried to hurl him to the ground.

Gervaise’s superior weight saved him from falling, though he staggered back some paces; then his heel caught against a stone, and he fell, dragging Hassan to the ground with him.  Tightly clasped in each other’s arms, they rolled over and over.  Gervaise succeeded at last in getting the upper hand, but as he did so Hassan twisted his right arm free, snatched the dagger from Gervaise’s girdle, and struck furiously at him.  Gervaise, who had half risen to his knees, was unable to avoid the blow, but threw himself forward, his weight partly pinning the corsair s shoulders to the ground, and the blow passed behind him, inflicting but a slight wound in the back; then, with his right hand, which was now free, he grasped Hassan by the throat with a grip of iron.  The pirate struggled convulsively for a moment, then his left hand released his grasp of his opponent’s wrist.  A minute later Gervaise rose to his feet:  the pirate was dead.