When his hunger was appeased, Francisco Rimini turned to Ted Flaggan and
asked him, through Lucien, to go over again in detail the course of
action which Bacri advised him and his sons to adopt in order to effect
their escape out of the country. "For," said he with emphasis, "I'm
neither a lion nor a rabbit, and cannot therefore make up my mind to
spend the rest of my days in a hole."
We will spare the reader Mister Flaggan's repetition of the details
referred to, merely remarking that they embraced careful directions as
to when and where a boat would be found on the coast ready to carry them
out to sea, and that they contained many earnest cautions to be wary, as
nothing short of death by slow torture would be their fate if
recaptured--this being their second attempt at escape.
Meanwhile circumstances were transpiring which gave a new turn to the
state of affairs in the pirate city.
We have elsewhere remarked on the amazing fact that the great powers of
Europe and America tolerated the system of barefaced piracy which was
carried on by the Algerines against all nations that did not pay them
"black-mail," but it must not be supposed that this disgraceful
submission was the result of fear or of indifference. The truth is,
that the great powers were so busily engaged in throttling each other
that they had no time to give proper attention to the Algerine wasps
that stung them, and the wasps themselves were so besottedly ignorant of
European affairs and of their own relative insignificance, so puffed up
indeed by their supposed greatness--a delusion which was shamefully
fostered by the action towards them of the great powers themselves--that
they wilfully proceeded to extremities which a very little knowledge of
other nations would have convinced them was the certain way to bring
about their own ruin. The immense sums raised year after year by
various European nations, and given to the pirates for the redemption of
thousands of Christian slaves, proved that they were not indifferent to
the scourge of the Mediterranean. (See Note 1.)
But in the midst of this disgraceful forbearance of the nations, there
was an occasional growl from one and another, and a fierce side-glance
at the wasps, which might have let them see that their nest was in
danger.
For instance, in 1804 Admiral Nelson menaced the town with a large
fleet, and not long afterwards the Americans absolutely declined to pay
their "black-mail," and sent a squadron to procure, or, if need were, to
compel a favourable treaty of peace with the Algerines. Other clouds
arose here and there and overhung the doomed city, but the infatuated
pirates remained blind as bats and insolent as monkeys.
Thus matters stood when the Dey Omar ascended the throne, and for some
time afterwards.
One morning the English consul was summoned to attend the divan of the
Dey, in connexion with a vessel which had lately been brought in as a
prize by one of the Algerine corsairs.
The consul had previously presented himself at Court--as did all the
other consuls--to pay his respects to the new Dey, and on a subsequent
occasion had made an effort to press a point which had always been a
matter of deep interest with him, namely, the bringing about of peace
between the Algerines and the Portuguese. There were many Portuguese
slaves in the town and neighbourhood at the time, and several officers
of that country dwelt there, exempt from the duty of labouring like
beasts of burden at the works on the walls and about the harbour, solely
in virtue of annual tribute being paid by their friends. The former
Dey, Achmet, had declined to oblige his friend Colonel Langley by making
peace with Portugal, on the ground that he could not forego the
advantages resulting from a state of warfare. The new Dey, Omar, was
still less capable of being influenced by considerations of humanity.
"What would you have?" he said, when Colonel Langley spoke to him on the
subject; "my people are brigands, and I am their chief! If I make peace
with Portugal, it will be absolutely necessary that I should declare war
with America, merely to keep my people employed!"
This was at all events candid, and the consul felt that it would be vain
to press the matter he had so much at heart as long as Omar occupied the
throne.
On his way down to the Marina, where the divan referred to was to be
held, he met Blindi Bobi looking rather disconsolate. Having an hour or
more to spare, he resolved to have a chat with him.
"Well, Bobby, my boy," said the consul kindly, for the eccentric
interpreter was a favourite, "you seem sad. Nothing wrong, I hope?"
"Not wi' me, nohow," responded Bobi, shaking his head. "Nuffin never
wrong wi' me. Always too well. Health to the mast-head--more nor I
knows wat to do wid. Wishes I could die, I do--sometimes."
"I grieve to hear that," said the consul earnestly, for he saw that the
man was in no jesting humour. "Let me know what distresses you."
"Sidi Cadua," said Bobi.
"What! the father of poor Ashweesha, widow of my late friend Achmet
Dey?" said the consul.
"Yis. Hush! Omar Dey--de divl," growled Bobi in a low tones, "gits the
berry stones to listen an' reports wat peepil say."
"Never fear," returned the consul, smiling, "they dare not report what
_I_ say. Come, tell me about it."
"Oh! it shockable," said Bobi. "Come an' see." So saying, the poor man
hurried off in the direction of a low-lying part of the town, closely
followed by the consul. Here, seated on a plain mat in an empty cellar,
which was destitute of furniture and almost of light, they found the
father of the late Sultana. His gentle, kindly spirit seemed, like his
frail old body, to be bowed to the very dust.
"My dear friend," exclaimed the consul, almost overwhelmed with grief at
the sight, "has the villain robbed you of all your wealth?"
"He has," replied the old man, taking the consul's proffered hand and
pressing it warmly; "but he has done worse than that--"
"What! has he dared to--"
Sidi Cadua interrupted and answered the question by quietly removing the
lower part of his robe, and exposing his feet, which were dreadfully
swollen and scarred with the bastinado.
"Even that is not the worst of it," said the old man, re-covering his
mutilated feet; "my daughter, my sweet, tender Ashweesha, has been
cruelly bastinadoed for--"
He broke down here, and, covering his face with his withered hands,
groaned aloud.
For a few moments Colonel Langley could not speak.
"But why," he said at length, "why such cruelty?"
Recovering himself, Sidi Cadua slowly related the circumstances. An
enemy, he said, had accused him to the Dey Omar of having hidden away a
large amount of treasure, and he had been put to the torture in order to
force him to disclose the truth; but the truth was that he had never
concealed treasure, and had no confession to make. Believing that his
silence was the result of sheer obstinacy, and that the truth might
perhaps be extorted from his daughter, the cruel monster had the gentle
Ashweesha dragged from her apartments and subjected to the bastinado.
"Dreadful!" exclaimed the consul. "Where is she now?"
Sidi Cadua silently pointed to a ragged old burnous in a dark corner of
the little cellar, under which a human form lay crouched up and
motionless.
"Not dead?" asked the consul anxiously.
"No, not dead," replied the old man, with an upward glance of gratitude.
"Sidi Cadua," exclaimed the consul, rising hastily, "excuse my leaving
you now. I have to attend the divan. You shall hear from me soon.
You--you,"--looking round--"have no other house than this--no food?"
"Nothing!" said the old man in a low voice, as his white head sank on
his bosom.
"Listen, my man," said the consul earnestly, as he hastened down to the
Marina.
"Yis, Signor," answered Bobi.
"Can you find time to go out to my house just now?"
"Yis, Signor."
"Then, go--go as fast as legs or horse can carry you. See my wife; tell
her what we have seen; let her send Rais Ali into town with other
servants--separately, not to attract attention--with baskets--full
baskets, you understand?"
"Yis, Signor, full to bustin'," answered Bobi, with glittering eyes.
"Full as they can hold of all that is needful--she will understand
that.--There, be off--lose no time," said the consul, thrusting a
quantity of silver into the man's hand.
"Kurnul Langley," said Bobi, with enthusiasm glowing in his solitary
eye, as he turned to go; "you--by the beard of the Prophet!--you're the
ace of trumps!"
With this strong, if not elegant expression of his sentiments, the
sympathetic Bobi hurried away, and Colonel Langley entered the divan,
where were assembled the Dey and the chief officers of state.
The discussion on that occasion was conducted warmly, for the pirates
believed that they had made a good and legitimate prize in the shape of
a Greek vessel, which was owned by a Mr and Mrs de Lisle, who, with
their little son, were also captured.
Colonel Langley claimed these as British subjects, and the vessel as
British property.
In this case the pirates had taken a precaution which, they had hoped,
would save them all trouble. On boarding the vessel they had demanded
all Mr de Lisle's papers and passports, which, when delivered up, were
torn into atoms and thrown into the sea. Thus they sought to destroy
all evidence of the nature of the prize.
Mr de Lisle was a native of Guernsey, and therefore an English subject.
Early in life he had entered a commercial house in Holland, and been
naturalised there. Afterwards he was sent to a branch of the same house
in Naples, which at that time was occupied by the French. Amassing
considerable property, he resolved to return to his native land, and
hired a Greek vessel, as being a neutral one, to convey him. On his
way, he fell into the hands of the Algerines.
At the divan the British consul claimed that Mr de Lisle and his family
and property should be delivered up to him.
The Turks, with whom Colonel Langley was out of favour now that his
friend Achmet was dead, were furious. How could he be an Englishman,
they said, when it was well-known that the French would not have
permitted one of their chief enemies to remain at Naples?
"And besides," added Omar, with a touch of sarcasm, "where are his
papers to prove that what he says is true?"
The consul had made his demand with unusual firmness and dignity, for
the memory of poor Sidi Cadua was strong upon him, but this latter
remark somewhat perplexed him. Fortunately, at the moment, de Lisle
himself, who was present, started up and said in English, across the
divan--
"If I am permitted to go on board my vessel, I can still bring
satisfactory evidence of my nationality."
The Turks were extremely unwilling to concede this, but when the consul
turned and said to the Dey, "I trust your highness will not refuse so
reasonable a request," he was permitted to go. In a short time he
returned with the certificate of his marriage, which proved that he had
been married in Guernsey, and was a British subject, to the
inexpressible rage of the divan, who were compelled, however, to give
in.
"Nevertheless, Monsieur le Console," said the Dey sternly, "if it shall
be proved, even twenty years hence, that you were wrong in this matter,
you shall have to answer for it."
From that time the British consul and the Dey became open enemies, which
was a matter of gratulation to the consuls of some of the other powers,
who had been rather jealous of Colonel Langley's influence with the late
Dey, Achmet.
Not long afterwards they would have been glad if his influence could
have been restored; for Omar, being soured by what had occurred at the
divan, as well as by many other things that crossed his imperious will,
commenced to act in such an outrageous manner that the various consuls
felt not only their independence but their lives in jeopardy.
Sending for the Danish consul one morning, Omar told that unfortunate
man that his government had already been warned more than once to pay
the tribute which was past due, and that he was going to stand their
neglect no longer. He therefore ordered him to be put in chains, and
sent forthwith to work in the stone-quarries.
The order was at once obeyed. A chaouse, at a signal from the Dey,
seized the Danish consul by the waist-band, thrust him out of the
palace, and along the streets to the Bagnio, there loaded him with
chains, and led him forth to work with the slaves!
The consternation of the other consuls was of course extreme. The
instant Colonel Langley heard of it, he ordered his horse and galloped
into town, accompanied by Rais Ali and Ted Flaggan, the latter having
constituted himself a sort of extra aide-de-camp or special attendant of
the consul, in order to gratify the more easily an insatiable thirst for
knowledge as to all that took place around him.
They went direct to the residence of the Danish consul, where they found
his poor wife and children in the deepest grief and alarm at what had
occurred, for it had been reported to them that Omar had said he would
order the wife and children of the Danish consul to be put up for sale
in the public slave-market if the tribute due by Denmark were not paid
without further delay.
"Trust me, madam," said the Colonel with indignation, "we shall not
suffer this barbarian to carry out his threats, and we will, moreover,
see instant justice done to your husband."
Hastily writing several notes requesting a meeting with his brother
consuls in the residence of the Dane, he despatched them by his two
satellites, and very speedily the whole were assembled.
"Gentlemen," said Colonel Langley, after some conversation, "it is
imperative that we should act at once, unitedly and with decision.
Anything like vacillation at such a crisis will encourage these
barbarians to proceed to extremities which may end in our ruin. Need I
call to your remembrance the recent case of the unhappy Dutch consul,
who had dwelt twenty-three years in this city, and who, although an old
and infirm man, was loaded with irons of sixty pounds' weight, and
marched out to labour with the other slaves, from which treatment he
soon after died--all, forsooth, because his government had delayed to
send the accustomed annual `present' to the Dey at the appointed time?
It concerns us all, gentlemen, that we should act promptly. We must
proceed in a body at once--within this hour--to the palace, and demand
that our brother consul shall instantly be set at liberty. For this
purpose, if you agree with me, we must elect one of our number to be
spokesman."
At this point the other consuls interrupted the Colonel, by begging him
to accept the office, and to lead them out at once.
"I accept it with pleasure," said the Colonel, turning to Rais Ali, who
stood at his elbow.--"Rais, you will accompany me to interpret--"
"Oh, Monsieur!" exclaimed Rais, who had not many minutes before been
boasting to his friend Flaggan that he was a brave English tar as good
as himself, but who now turned very pale; "oh no, no! Please, Monsieur,
demand me not to go dis time for interprit. For certain the Dey hims
kill me--hims kill all of us."
"Well then, Rais," replied the Colonel, somewhat amused at the man's
undisguised terror, "we shall all die together, and you will at least
have the comfort of falling in goodly company."
"But, master," supplicated Rais, "I's not a Turk; me dare not defy the
Dey to hims visage. I's only a craulie!"
By which the unhappy man meant to explain that he was only the son of a
Turk by an Algerine mother, and that as such he could expect no mercy if
he aided in bearding the Dey in his den; but the Colonel was inexorable,
and poor Rais Ali was obliged to submit.
At this time, the English and French being at war, there existed a
somewhat natural feeling of estrangement between the representatives of
the two nations at Algiers. Colonel Langley thought the present a good
opportunity to effect a better understanding between them. He therefore
offered his arm to the French consul, who accepted it politely, though
with feelings of surprise. Thus they walked out two and two into the
street, and marched down the principal thoroughfare, across the great
square, and straight into the palace.
The amazement of the Algerines at this sight was great, for they were
well aware of the bad feeling which had for many years existed between
the leading couple in this little procession, or rather between their
predecessors, some of whom had taken undignified, not to say
disgraceful, methods of displaying their jealousy.
"Allah!" exclaimed the Algerines, turning up their eyes, "the English
and French consuls walking together! Surely the old prophecy is about
to come true, `When Christians are at peace among themselves the
downfall of Algiers is decreed!'"
It is said that there really does exist a very old prophecy to this
effect among the Mussulmans of Algeria, and certain it is that the
prophecy was ultimately fulfilled, but at the time of which we write it
was only anticipated.
Demanding an immediate audience, the party were admitted into the
presence-chamber, where they created feelings of great surprise in the
breasts of the pirate-king and his piratical courtiers.
When Rais Ali had tremblingly translated the demand which had been made
with stern dignity by his master, the Dey flew into a towering rage, and
actually foamed at the mouth, as he replied--
"Why art thou not glad that I thus punish your old enemy? Was not
England lately at war with Denmark?"
"I am not glad," answered the British consul, "because it is against the
spirit of Christianity to cultivate feelings of revenge, and the fact
that we were not long since at war with Denmark is no doubt the very
reason why the Danes have found it difficult to pay, at the exact time,
the debt which they will unquestionably discharge before long; but if
your highness continues to act thus to their representative, in despite
of his inviolable character, and in defiance of treaties wherein it is
specified that the persons and families of consuls are to be held
sacred, you may rest assured that no civilised nation will continue to
treat with you."
"What care the Deys of Algiers for the persons of consuls, which you
deem so sacred?" said Omar savagely. "Hast thou not heard that in time
past we have blown the consuls of refractory nations from the months of
our cannon?"
"I have," replied the Colonel calmly, "and I have also heard that
Algiers has been several times bombarded, and nearly reduced to ashes.
I do not presume to use threats to your highness," added the consul
firmly, though respectfully, "but I am here as spokesman of these
representatives of various powers, to assure you that if you do not
release the consul of Denmark immediately, we will all write to our
respective governments to send vessels of war to remove us from a court
where the law of nations is not respected."
Omar attempted to bluster a little more, but had sense enough to
perceive that he had already gone too far, and at length consented to
grant the consuls' demands. The condemned consul was immediately set at
liberty, and his brethren returned to his residence in the same manner
as they had left it, with this difference, that the French and English
consuls walked in front, with the representative of Denmark between
them.
This incident, as may be imagined, did not improve Omar's temper.
Immediately after it, he issued some stringent decrees in reference to
the slaves, and ordered the execution of six chief men of the State,
whose presence in the city had been a source of danger to the
consolidation of his power. Among other things, he made some stern laws
in reference to runaway slaves; and, having his attention drawn to the
fact that the scrivano-grande of the late Achmet, and his assistant
secretary, had not yet been discovered, he not only ordered the search
for them to be continued with increased diligence, but took the unusual
method of offering a reward to any one who should find or bring news of
them.
This caused the matter to be widely talked about, and among others who
heard of the proclamation was a little Moorish girl named Ziffa.
Now this Ziffa was the only daughter of Hadji Baba, the Court
story-teller, who, like the Vicar of Bray, managed to remain in office,
no matter who should come into or go out of power.
We are sorry to have to record the fact that Ziffa was a bad child--a
particularly naughty little girl. She told lies, and was a little
thief, besides being fond of that despicable habit styled eavesdropping.
She listened behind doors and curtains and at key-holes without feeling
a particle of shame! It is probable that the child's attention would
not have been arrested by the proclamation of the Dey, if it had not
chanced that, during a visit which she was asked to pay to the garden of
the British consul for the purpose of playing with Agnes Langley, she
overheard Rais Ali and Ted Flaggan mention the name of Lucien Rimini.
The seaman had found it necessary to take Rais into his confidence, and
little Ziffa, in the exercise of her disgraceful vocation of
eavesdropper, had overheard a little of their conversation about the
Riminis. She did not, however, hear much, and, having no interest in
the Riminis, forgot all about it.
On hearing the proclamation, however, she bethought her that something
might be made out of the matter, if she could only manage to get her
little friend Agnes to play the part of spy, and find out about things
for her. Opportunity was not long wanting. She had an engagement that
very day to go out to the consul's garden to spend the day with Agnes,
and a faithful old negro servant of her father was to conduct her
thither.
Ziffa was extremely fond of finery. Just as she was about to set out,
her eye fell on a splendid diamond ring which lay on her father's
dressing-table. Hadji Baba was very fond of this ring, as it had been a
gift to him from Achmet, his former master, and he never went abroad
without it, but a hasty summons to the palace had, on this occasion,
caused him to forget it. As it was made for the little finger of Hadji
Baba, which was remarkably thin, it exactly fitted the middle finger of
Ziffa which was uncommonly fat. Seizing the ring, she thrust it into
her bosom, resolving to astonish her friend Agnes. Then, running
down-stairs to the old servant, she was soon on her way to the consul's
garden.
"Agnes," she said, on finding herself alone with her friend, "I want you
to do something for--"
"Oh what a lovely ring!" exclaimed Agnes, as Ziffa drew it out of her
breast and put it on.
"Yes, isn't it pretty? But I must not let my old servant see it, lest
he should tell my father, who'd be very angry if he knew I had taken
it."
Agnes was taken by surprise, and remained silent. She had been so
carefully trained to tell her father and mother everything, and to trust
them, that it was a new and disagreeable idea to her the thought of
doing anything secretly.
"Well, this is what I want," continued Ziffa; "I want you to listen to
the talk of Rais Ali and the sailor who lives with you, when they don't
know you are near, and tell me all that they say about a family named
Rimini--will you?"
"Oh, I can't do that," said Agnes decidedly; "it would be wrong."
"What would be wrong?" asked Mrs Langley, coming out from a side-walk
in the garden at that moment to fetch the children in to lunch.
Agnes blushed, looked down, and said nothing. Her mother at once
dropped the subject, and led them into the house, where she learned from
Agnes the nature of her little friend's proposal.
"Take no further notice of it, dear," said her mother, who guessed the
reason of the child's curiosity.
Leaving the friends at lunch in charge of Paulina Ruffini, she hastened
to find Ted Flaggan, whom she warned to be more careful how he conversed
with his friend Rais.
"What puzzles me, ma'am," said Ted, "is, how did the small critter
understand me, seein' that she's a Moor?"
"That is easily explained: we have been teaching her English for some
time, I regret to say, for the purpose of making her more of a companion
to my daughter, who is fond of her sprightly ways. I knew that she was
not quite so good a girl as I could have wished, but had no idea she was
so deceitful. Go, find Rais Ali at once, and put him on his guard,"
said Mrs Langley, as she left the seaman and returned to the house.
Now, if there ever was a man who could not understand either how to
deceive, or to guard against deception, or to do otherwise than take a
straight course, that man was Ted Flaggan, and yet Ted thought himself
to be an uncommonly sharp deceiver when occasion required.
Having received the caution above referred to, he thrust his hands into
his coat-pockets, and with a frowning countenance went off in search of
Rais Ali. Mariner-like, he descried him afar on the horizon of vision,
as it were, bearing down under full sail along a narrow path between two
hedges of aloes and cactus, which led to the house.
By a strange coincidence, Agnes and her friend came bounding out into
the shrubbery at that moment, having finished their brief luncheon, and
Ziffa chanced to catch sight of the stout mariner as he hastened to meet
his friend.
With the intuitive sharpness of an Eastern mind she observed the fact,
and with the native acuteness of a scheming little vixen, she guessed
that something _might_ turn up. Acting on the thought, she shouted--
"Wait a little, Agnes; I will hide: you shall find me."
Innocent Agnes obediently waited, while Ziffa ran down the wrong side of
the cactus hedge, and kept up with the seaman--a little in rear of him.
"Ho! Ally Babby," shouted Ted Flaggan, when he was within hail--it
might be a hundred yards or so--of his friend, "what d'ee think? that
little brown-faced chip of Hadji Baba has been up here eavesdropping,
and has got to windward of us a'most. Leastwise she knows enough o' the
Riminis to want to know more--the dirty little spalpeen."
"Thank you," thought Ziffa, as she listened.
When Flaggan had varied his remarks once or twice, by way of translating
them, Rais Ali shook his head.
"That bad," said he, "ver' bad. We mus' be tremendous cautious.
Ziffa's a little brute."
"Ha!" thought Ziffa.
"You don't say so?" observed Flaggan. "Well, now, I'd scarce have
thought we had reason to be so fearful of a small thing, with a stupid
brown face like that."
"Brute!" muttered Ziffa inaudibly.
"Oh! she werry sharp chile," returned Rais, "werry sharp--got ears and
eyes from the sole of hers head to de top of hers feets."
Ziffa said nothing, either mentally or otherwise, but looked rather
pleased.
"Well," continued Rais, "we won't mention the name of Rimini again
nowhars--only w'en we can't help it, like."
"Not a whisper," said Flaggan; "but, be the way, it'll be as well,
before comin' to that state of prudent silence, that you tell me if the
noo hole they've gone to is near the owld wan. You see it's my turn to
go up wi' provisions to-morrow night, and I hain't had it rightly
explained, d'ye see?"
Here Rais Ali described, with much elaboration, the exact position of
the new hole to which the Rimini family had removed, at the head of
Frais Vallon, and Mademoiselle Ziffa drank it all in with the most
exuberant satisfaction.
Shortly afterwards Agnes Langley found her friend hiding close to the
spot in the garden where she had last seen her.
That night Hadji Baba made an outrageous disturbance in his household as
to the lost diamond ring, and finally fixed, with the sagacity of an
unusually sharp man, on his old negro as being the culprit.
Next morning he resolved to have the old man before the cadi, after
forenoon attendance at the palace. While there, he casually mentioned
to Omar the circumstance of the theft of his ring, and asked leave to
absent himself in the afternoon to have the case tried.
"Go," said Omar gravely, "but see that thou forget not to temper justice
with mercy.--By the way, tell me, friend Hadji, before thou goest, what
was the meaning of that strange request of thine the other day, and on
which thou hast acted so much of late?"
The story-teller turned somewhat pale, and looked anxious.
The strange request referred to was to the effect that the Dey should
give him no more gifts or wages, (in regard to both of which he was not
liberal), but that instead thereof he, Hadji Baba, should be allowed to
whisper confidentially in the Dey's ear on all public occasions without
umbrage being taken, and that the Dey should give him a nod and smile in
reply. Omar, who was a penurious man, had willingly agreed to this
proposal, and, as he now remarked, Baba had made frequent use of the
license.
"Pardon me, your highness," said Baba; "may I speak the truth without
fear of consequences?"
"Truly thou mayest," replied the Dey; "and it will be well that thou
speakest nothing _but_ the truth, else thou shalt have good reason to
remember the consequences."
"Well, then, your highness," returned Baba boldly, "feeling that my
income was not quite so good as my position at Court required, and
desiring earnestly to increase it without further taxing the resources
of your highness's treasury, I ventured to make the request which I did,
and the result has been--has been--most satisfactory."
"Blockhead!" exclaimed the irritable Dey, "that does not explain the
nature of the satisfaction."
"Your slave was going to add," said Hadji Baba hastily, "that my
frequent whispering in your ear, and your highness's gracious nods and
smiles in reply, have resulted in my being considered one of the most
influential favourites in the palace, so that my good word is esteemed
of the utmost value, and paid for accordingly."
Omar laughed heartily at this, and Hadji Baba, much relieved, retired to
have his case tried before the cadi, taking his daughter with him, for
she had assured him that she had seen the old servant take it.
The old servant pleaded not guilty with earnest solemnity.
"Are you quite sure you saw him take the ring?" demanded the cadi of
Ziffa.
"Quite sure," replied the girl.
"And you are sure you did _not_ take it?" he asked of the negro.
"Absolutely certain," answered the old man.
"And you are convinced that you once had the ring, and now have it not?"
he said, turning to Hadji Baba.
"Quite."
"The case is very perplexing," said the cadi, turning to the
administrators of the law who stood at his elbow; "give the master and
the servant each one hundred strokes of the bastinado, twenty at a time,
beginning with the servant."
The officers at once seized on the old negro, threw him down and gave
him twenty blows. They then advanced to Hadji Baba, and were about to
seize him, when he cried out--
"Beware what thou doest! I am an officer of the Dey's palace and may
not be treated thus with impunity."
The cadi, who either did not, or pretended not, to believe the
statement, replied sententiously--
"Justice takes no note of persons.--Proceed."
The officers threw Baba on his face, and were about to proceed, when
Ziffa in alarm advanced with the ring and confessed her guilt.
Upon this the cadi was still further perplexed, for he could not now
undo the injustice of the blows given to the negro. After a few
minutes' severe thought he awarded the diamond ring to the old servant,
and the two hundred blows to the master as being a false accuser.
The award having been given, the case was dismissed, and Hadji Baba went
home with smarting soles, resolved to punish Ziffa severely.
"Spare me!" said Ziffa, whimpering, when her father, seizing a rod, was
about to begin.
"Nay, thou deservest it," cried Baba, grasping her arm.
"Spare me!" repeated Ziffa, "and I will tell you a great secret, which
will bring you money and credit."
The curiosity of the story-teller was awakened.
"What is it thou hast to tell?"
"Promise me, father, that you won't punish me if I tell you the secret."
"I promise," said Baba, "but see that it is really something worth
knowing, else will I give thee a severer flogging."
Hereupon the false Ziffa related all she knew about the hiding-place of
the Rimini family. Her father immediately went to the palace, related
it to the Dey, and claimed and received the reward.
That night a party of soldiers were sent off to search the head of Frais
Vallon, and before morning they returned to town with Francisco and his
two sons, whom they threw into their old prison the Bagnio, and loaded
them heavily with chains.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 1. It is said that the treasure in Algiers about the end of that
century amounted to 4,000,000 pounds, most of which was paid by other
governments to purchase peace with the Algerines.