Page 204 - A Knight of the White Cross

the Bey of Tunis, offering to ransom the knights, but all replied that they
were unaware of any such captives having been landed.

An attempt had then been made to ascertain whether they had been carried

to Tripoli; but the bey had little authority over the various tribesmen along
the coast, and only replied that no such captives had been sold in the city.
Thus all hope of ransoming them had died away, and their names were

inscribed in the list of those who had fallen into the hands of the infidels,
but of whose subsequent fate no clue could be obtained.

All were greatly emaciated, and their faces showed signs of the sufferings
they had undergone. The young knights were all familiar with their names,

but personally none had known them, for they had been carried off two or
three months before Gervaise and Ralph Harcourt had arrived at Rhodes.

All three had struggled desperately to break their chains while the fight was
going on, and had, as soon as the contest was decided, risen to their feet

and shouted the battle cry of the Order; then, overcome by their emotions,
they sank down upon their benches, and remained as if in a stupor until the

knights, who had hurried first to them, struck off their fetters. Then the
three men grasped each other's hands, while tears streamed down their
cheeks.

"It is no dream, comrades," one of them said, in a hoarse voice. "We are

free again. Let us first return thanks to God for our release, and then we can
thank these our brothers."

The three knights knelt at the benches where they had toiled and suffered,
and hid their faces in their hands. No sounds came from their lips, but their

stifled sobs and the heaving of their naked shoulders, seamed and scarred
by the strokes of their taskmasters' whips, told the young knights, who
stood unhelmeted and silent around, how deep was their emotion. Then

they rose.

"I am Fabricius Caretto," one said; "this is Giacomo Da Vinci; this Pietro
Forzi: all knight commanders of the Order, and now for six years prisoners