Page 278 - A Knight of the White Cross

"He is a warrior; he is one of those terrible knights of Rhodes whose very
name is a terror to the Turks, and whose galleys are feared even by our

boldest corsairs. He must be of approved valour, for he was commander of
one of these galleys."

The girls looked with amazement at Gervaise. They had often heard tales of
the capture of ships that had sailed from Tripoli, by the galleys of the

Christian knights, and had pictured those fierce warriors as of almost
supernatural strength and valour. That this youth, whose upper lip was but

shaded with a slight moustache, should be one of them, struck them as
being almost incredible.

"He does not look ferocious, father," one of them said. "He looks pleasant
and good tempered, as if he could injure no one."

"And yet this morning, daughter, he braved, unarmed, the anger of Hassan
the corsair, on the deck of his own ship; and when the pirate called upon his

men to seize him he threw one overboard, struck two more on to the deck,
and it needed eight men to overpower him."

"I hope he won't get angry with us!" the younger girl exclaimed. Gervaise
could not suppress a laugh, and then, turning to the merchant, said in

Turkish, "I must ask your pardon for having concealed from you my
knowledge of your tongue. I kept the secret from all on board the corsair,

and meant to have done the same here, deeming that if none knew that I
spoke the language it would greatly aid me should I ever see an opportunity
of making my escape; but, Ben Tbyn, you have behaved so kindly to me

that I feel it would not be honourable to keep it a secret from you, and to
allow you and the ladies to talk freely before me, thinking that I was

altogether ignorant of what you were saying."

"You have acted well and honourably," Ben Tbyn said, putting a hand on

his shoulder kindly. "We have heard much of the character of the Order,
and that though valiant in battle, your knights are courteous and chivalrous,

deeming a deceitful action to be unworthy of them, and binding themselves
by their vows to succour the distressed and to be pitiful to the weak. We