The next morning at daybreak Gervaise and Suleiman Ali went on board the Egyptian trader, and sailed for Acre.  The current of opinion had changed at the auberge when the knights came to think over the mission on which Gervaise was about to start, and the slight feeling of jealousy with which the younger knights had received the news was entirely dissipated.  While it did not seem to them that there was any chance of his distinguishing himself, they perceived, as they thought it over, the considerable danger there was of capture by pirates, and Ralph and some of his companions came down to the mole to see him off, with feelings in which envy bore no part whatever.

“I see now, Gervaise, that it is truly no holiday excursion on which you are starting.  I should envy you greatly were you going in command of an armed galley, prepared to beat off any craft that might try to overhaul you; but, going alone as you are, it is a very different thing.  Should pirates meet you, you could offer no resistance, and your position would be a perilous one indeed.  However, I think you are born to good luck, and am confident that your patron saint will look after you, and therefore expect to see you back here in a fortnight’s time at the outside.”

“I hope so with all my heart, Ralph.  It will be no fault of mine if I tarry.”

“Will you keep the open sea, or skirt the land, Tresham?” one of the others asked.

“I shall keep the open sea.  The grand master left me to choose my course; but I think there is more danger by the coast —­ where pirates may be hiding in unfrequented bays, in readiness to pounce upon a passing craft —­ than in the open sea, where we should have at least the advantage that we could not be taken by surprise, and might make a race of it.  But the sun will be up in a few minutes, and my orders were to set out at sunrise, so I must say goodbye at once.”

As soon as the vessel was under way, Gervaise took a seat on the poop by the side of Suleiman Ali, and related to him the conversation he had had with the grand master.

“The risk that you will run has not escaped me,” the Turk said, “and indeed, I now regret that you were chosen as my escort.  I almost wish that my son had not purchased my freedom at the present time, since it involves the risk of you losing yours.  There is no doubt that the sea swarms with pirates; the sultan is too busy with his own struggles for Empire to bestow any attention upon so small a matter.  The pashas and the officers of the ports have not the power, even had they the will, to put down piracy in their districts, and indeed are, as often as not, participators in the spoils.  Your Order, which, years back, scoured the seas so hotly that piracy well nigh ceased, have now for forty years been obliged to turn their attention chiefly to their own defence.  They possess a comparatively small fleet of galleys, and their wealth is expended on their fortress.