“It is a good thought of D’Aubusson’s.  When one is in the thick of a fight in a breach, with the Moslems swarming round, it does not occur to one to draw out of the fray to send off messages.  For myself, I shall be glad indeed to have that matter off my mind, though it is not every one I should care to trust with such a responsibility.  Some might send off for aid when it was not needed, others might delay so long that help might come too late; but with one so cool headed as yourself I should not fear any contingency.  And now, as I am not busy at present, let us have a comfortable talk as to what has happened since we met last.  I was at the banquet at the grand master’s on the night when you related your adventures.  You had certainly much to tell, but it seems to me for some reason or other you cut short certain details, and I could not see why, as there seemed no prospect of escape open to you, you did not accept the offer of Suleiman Ali to ransom you.”

“I saw no chance of escape at the moment, but I did not doubt that I could get away from the town whenever I chose, although it was not clear how I should proceed afterwards.  It was for this opportunity I was waiting, and I felt sure that, with my knowledge of the language, it would come sooner or later.  In the next place, my captors had fixed an exorbitant sum for my ransom, and I did not wish to impose upon the generosity of Suleiman.  There was another reason —­ a private one.”

“You don’t mean to say that you had fallen in love with a Moorish damsel, Sir Gervaise?” Caretto laughed.

“For shame, Cavalier!  As if a Christian knight would care for a Moslem maiden, even were she as fair as the houris of their creed!”

“Christian knights have done so before now,” Caretto laughed, greatly amused at the young knight’s indignation, “and doubtless will do so again.  Well, I suppose I must not ask what the private matter was, though it must have been something grave indeed to lead you, a slave, to reject the offer of freedom.  I know that when I was rowing in their galleys, no matter of private business that I can conceive would have stood in my way for a single moment, had a chance of freedom presented itself.”

“It was a matter of honour,” Gervaise said gravely, “and one of which I should speak to no one else; but as you were present at the time, there can, I think, be no harm in doing so.  At the time that I was captured, I was stripped of everything that I had upon me, and, of course, with the rest, of the gage which the Lady Claudia had given me, and which hung round my neck where she had placed it.  It was taken possession of by the captain of the pirates, who, seeing that it bore no Christian emblem, looked upon it as a sort of amulet.  I understood what he was saying, but, as I was desirous that my knowledge of Turkish should not be suspected, I said nothing.  I was very glad that he so regarded it, for had he taken it to be an ordinary trinket,