Page 107 - A Knight of the White Cross

"Well, you have earned the appointment, Tresham," Ralph Harcourt said
heartily. "You always told me when I asked you that you were getting on,

but I had not the least idea that you were getting on like this. And can you
read and write the Turkish language?"

"Well enough for practical purposes, Ralph. At any rate, I wrote a
complimentary letter this morning from the grand master to the governor of

Syria, and the bailiff of Spain, who was, as you know, for ten years a
prisoner among the Turks, read it through at D'Aubusson's request, to see

that there was no error in it, and was good enough to pass it without
alteration."

"I would give a good deal," Sir Giles Trevor said, "if I could follow your
example, and shut myself up for nine months with an infidel to study his

language; but I could not do it if my life depended on it. I should throw
myself off the wall at the end of the first fortnight."

"I don't pretend that I can do what Tresham has done," Ralph Harcourt said.
"I always hated our lessons with the chaplain, who gave me the character of

having the thickest head of any of his pupils; but I vow" -- and he kissed
the handle of his dagger -- "I will spend half an hour a day in trying to learn
something of Turkish. Of course, I know that such time will not be enough

to learn a great deal; but if one could get up just enough to be able to give
orders to the slaves, to question the captain of a vessel one has captured,

and to make them understand a little, if by bad luck one fell into their
hands, it would be quite enough for me. I am sure sometimes one is quite at
a loss how to pass the hours when the sun is at its hottest, and if one tried

one ought to be able to pick up a little without much trouble. Look at the
servants; there is not one of them but speaks a little English. And if an

infidel can learn enough English to get on with, without any regular study, I
can't see why we shouldn't be able to learn enough Turkish in the same
way."

Two or three of the other young knights declared that they too would

devote a short time during the heat of the day to learning Turkish, and they
agreed to begin together forthwith with one of the servants, who spoke