“So you are to go with us, Gervaise,” the young knight said, “to try your luck for the first time against the infidels.  This is my third voyage, and I hope that it will be more fortunate than its predecessors, for, beyond picking up two or three small craft, which did not venture upon resistance, we gained neither honour nor booty.  I regard you as having specially good fortune, and besides being glad that we shall be together, I expect that you will bring good luck to us, and that we shall meet with foes worth contending with.  The corsairs have been very active of late, and have captured many prizes, while, on the other hand, our galleys have been unfortunate, and have but seldom come upon the miscreants.”

“How many knights will there be on board?”

“Forty.  Aragon, like us, furnishes five, Germany ten, Portugal five, Auvergne ten, and Provence five.  We shall be commanded by Sir Louis Ricord, a knight of Auvergne, and we could wish no better, for he has proved himself a good seaman and a brave captain.  Two other galleys are to start with us.  We are to cruise separately unless one gets news of a force so superior that he will need aid to attack it, when he will meet the others at a rendezvous agreed upon, and we shall work together.”

“Who are the other three Englishmen?”

“John Boswell, Marmaduke Lumley, and Adam Tedbond —­ all, as you know, brave knights and good companions.”

That evening Gervaise received a message from D’Aubusson, requesting him to call at his auberge.

“So you are going to sea, Sir Gervaise?  I hear from your bailiff that you have been working to his satisfaction in the town.”

“Yes, sir.  I shall indeed be glad to change it for a life at sea.  In truth, it is grievous to me to witness the sufferings of the slaves, and I would rather do any other work.”

“They are far better off than the Christians who fall into the hands of the Turks,” the bailiff said; “and, moreover, it is because their countrymen are preparing to attack us that we are forced to use their labour in strengthening our fortifications.  They have naught to complain of in the way of food.  Still, I would myself gladly see their lot alleviated; but we could not afford to keep so great a number of captives in idleness; they must work for their living.  Had it not been for their labour we could never have built and fortified the city.  After all, they are little worse off than our serfs at home; they build our castles and till our land.”

“It may be so, sir; but with us in England men are free, and it was, when I first came, strange to me to see them working under the fear of the whip.  It is necessary, I know, that such work should be done, but I own that I shall be glad to be away from the sight of the poor wretches, pirates and enemies of the faith though they be.”