Page 326 - A Knight of the White Cross

should proceed afterwards. It was for this opportunity I was waiting, and I
felt sure that, with my knowledge of the language, it would come sooner or

later. In the next place, my captors had fixed an exorbitant sum for my
ransom, and I did not wish to impose upon the generosity of Suleiman.

There was another reason -- a private one."

"You don't mean to say that you had fallen in love with a Moorish damsel,

Sir Gervaise?" Caretto laughed.

"For shame, Cavalier! As if a Christian knight would care for a Moslem
maiden, even were she as fair as the houris of their creed!"

"Christian knights have done so before now," Caretto laughed, greatly
amused at the young knight's indignation, "and doubtless will do so again.

Well, I suppose I must not ask what the private matter was, though it must
have been something grave indeed to lead you, a slave, to reject the offer of
freedom. I know that when I was rowing in their galleys, no matter of

private business that I can conceive would have stood in my way for a
single moment, had a chance of freedom presented itself."

"It was a matter of honour," Gervaise said gravely, "and one of which I
should speak to no one else; but as you were present at the time, there can, I

think, be no harm in doing so. At the time that I was captured, I was
stripped of everything that I had upon me, and, of course, with the rest, of

the gage which the Lady Claudia had given me, and which hung round my
neck where she had placed it. It was taken possession of by the captain of
the pirates, who, seeing that it bore no Christian emblem, looked upon it as

a sort of amulet. I understood what he was saying, but, as I was desirous
that my knowledge of Turkish should not be suspected, I said nothing. I

was very glad that he so regarded it, for had he taken it to be an ordinary
trinket, he might have parted with it, and I should never have been able to
obtain a clue as to the person to whom he sold it. As it was, he put it round

his neck, with the remark that it might bring him better luck than had
befallen me. He told me jeeringly months afterwards that it had done so,

and that he would never part with it. Given me as it was, I felt that my
honour was concerned in its recovery, and that, should I ever meet Lady