The Pirate City | Page 6

"I did it to save his life," replied Bacri, "and not only his, but your own
and the lives of all your men. I saw that Mariano was about to prevail,
and if he had slain the corsair chief, not one of you would have been
alive at this moment."
Francisco's wrath when roused was not readily appeased, nevertheless
this statement puzzled him so much that he remained silently gazing at

the Jew, from sheer inability to express his feelings.
"Listen," continued Bacri, drawing nearer, and speaking in a lower tone,
"the man into whose hands you have fallen is Sidi Hassan, one of the
most noted and daring of the pirates on the Barbary coast. Escape from
him is impossible. I know him well, and can assure you that your only
hope of receiving anything that deserves the title of good treatment
depends on your quiet and absolute subjection to his will. Rebellious or
even independent bearing will insure your speedy and severe
humiliation. We `dogs of Jews,'" continued Bacri, with a sad smile,
"may seem to you to hang our heads rather low sometimes, but I have
seen Christian men, as bold as you are, crawl upon the very dust before
these Turks of Algiers."
"Our fate, then," said Francisco, "is, I suppose, and as I half suspected,
to be slavery in that pirates' nest, Algiers?"
"I fear it is," replied the Jew, "unless Providence permits a storm to set
you free; but let me correct your notion of Algiers. A pirates' nest it
undoubtedly is, but there are others than pirates in the nest, and some of
these are even honest men."
"Ha!" exclaimed the padrone, quickly and with bitterness; "is one of
these said honest men a Jew of stalwart frame, and does his connexion
with the piratical nest free him from the bonds to which I and my sons
are doomed?"
"To both questions I answer yes," replied the Jew.
"Then a fig for your honesty, Master Bacri!" said Francisco, with a toss
of his head, in lieu of a snap of his fingers, which in the circumstances
was impossible, "for I now believe that you knocked Mariano down
simply to save the life of your comrade Sidi Hassan, and that you will
pocket your own share of my ship and cargo."
"I have not the power to alter your belief," said the Jew quietly, as he
turned away and left the unfortunate captive to his meditations.

As the night advanced the wind continued to abate, and when morning
broke, the broad breast of the Mediterranean undulated like a sheet of
clear glass, on which was gradually revealed the form of a strange
vessel becalmed not far from the prize.
As soon as it was sufficiently light to permit of objects being clearly
seen, Sidi Hassan fired a gun and showed the Algerine flag.
"Our luck has changed," he said to his first officer, with an air of
satisfaction. "Get the boats ready; we will board at once."
"She shows British colours," said the mate, regarding the vessel in
question intently through his glass.
"So she does," returned the captain, "but that device won't go down
with me. Board her at once, while I bring our broadside to bear."
The mate, with two boats full of armed men, soon pulled alongside the
strange sail, and the pirate-vessel was brought round with her broadside
to bear by means of long oars or sweeps. In a short time the boats
returned with the mortifying intelligence that the papers were all right,
and that the vessel, being in truth a British merchantman, was not a
legitimate prize. The corsair therefore sailed away under the influence
of a light breeze which had arisen.
At the time of which we write, (about sixty years ago), Algiers was
under the dominion of Turkey, but exercised all the rights of an
independent state. It may be described as a monstrous blot of barbarism
hanging on the skirts of civilisation. It was an anomaly too, for it
claimed to be an orthodox power, and was recognised as such by the
nations of Europe, while in reality its chief power consisted in
consummate impudence, founded on pride and ignorance of the
strength of other powers, coupled with the peculiarity of its position
and with the fact that the great nations were too much engaged fighting
with each other to be at leisure to pay attention to it. Its rulers or Deys
were most of them ignorant men, who had risen, in many cases, from
the ranks of the janissaries or common Turkish soldiery, and its sole
occupation was piracy--piracy pure and simple.

It did not, like other powers, find a pretext for war in the righting of a
supposed or real wrong. The birds of the Pirates'