PART I - CHAPTER XL.

by Miguel de Cervantes

　　IN WHICH THE STORY OF THE CAPTIVE IS CONTINUED.SONNET "Blest souls, that, from this mortal husk set free, In guerdon of brave deeds beatified, Above this lowly orb of ours abide Made heirs of heaven and immortality, With noble rage and ardour glowing ye Your strength, while strength was yours, in battle plied, And with your own blood and the foeman's dyed The sandy soil and the encircling sea. It was the ebbing life-blood first that failed The weary arms; the stout hearts never quailed. Though vanquished, yet ye earned the victor's crown: Though mourned, yet still triumphant was your fall For there ye won, between the sword and wall, In Heaven glory and on earth renown." "That is it exactly, according to my recollection," said the captive. "Well then, that on the fort," said the gentleman, "if my memory servesme, goes thus:SONNET "Up from this wasted soil, this shattered shell, Whose walls and towers here in ruin lie, Three thousand soldier souls took wing on high, In the bright mansions of the blest to dwell. The onslaught of the foeman to repel By might of arm all vainly did they try, And when at length 'twas left them but to die, Wearied and few the last defenders fell. And this same arid soil hath ever been A haunt of countless mournful memories, As well in our day as in days of yore. But never yet to Heaven it sent, I ween, From its hard bosom purer souls than these, Or braver bodies on its surface bore." The sonnets were not disliked, and the captive was rejoiced at thetidings they gave him of his comrade, and continuing his tale, he went onto say:The Goletta and the fort being thus in their hands, the Turks gave ordersto dismantle the Goletta--for the fort was reduced to such a state thatthere was nothing left to level--and to do the work more quickly andeasily they mined it in three places; but nowhere were they able to blowup the part which seemed to be the least strong, that is to say, the oldwalls, while all that remained standing of the new fortifications thatthe Fratin had made came to the ground with the greatest ease. Finallythe fleet returned victorious and triumphant to Constantinople, and a fewmonths later died my master, El Uchali, otherwise Uchali Fartax, whichmeans in Turkish "the scabby renegade;" for that he was; it is thepractice with the Turks to name people from some defect or virtue theymay possess; the reason being that there are among them only foursurnames belonging to families tracing their descent from the Ottomanhouse, and the others, as I have said, take their names and surnameseither from bodily blemishes or moral qualities. This "scabby one" rowedat the oar as a slave of the Grand Signor's for fourteen years, and whenover thirty-four years of age, in resentment at having been struck by aTurk while at the oar, turned renegade and renounced his faith in orderto be able to revenge himself; and such was his valour that, withoutowing his advancement to the base ways and means by which most favouritesof the Grand Signor rise to power, he came to be king of Algiers, andafterwards general-on-sea, which is the third place of trust in therealm. He was a Calabrian by birth, and a worthy man morally, and hetreated his slaves with great humanity. He had three thousand of them,and after his death they were divided, as he directed by his will,between the Grand Signor (who is heir of all who die and shares with thechildren of the deceased) and his renegades. I fell to the lot of aVenetian renegade who, when a cabin boy on board a ship, had been takenby Uchali and was so much beloved by him that he became one of his mostfavoured youths. He came to be the most cruel renegade I ever saw: hisname was Hassan Aga, and he grew very rich and became king of Algiers.With him I went there from Constantinople, rather glad to be so nearSpain, not that I intended to write to anyone about my unhappy lot, butto try if fortune would be kinder to me in Algiers than inConstantinople, where I had attempted in a thousand ways to escapewithout ever finding a favourable time or chance; but in Algiers Iresolved to seek for other means of effecting the purpose I cherished sodearly; for the hope of obtaining my liberty never deserted me; and whenin my plots and schemes and attempts the result did not answer myexpectations, without giving way to despair I immediately began to lookout for or conjure up some new hope to support me, however faint orfeeble it might be.In this way I lived on immured in a building or prison called by theTurks a bano in which they confine the Christian captives, as well thosethat are the king's as those belonging to private individuals, and alsowhat they call those of the Almacen, which is as much as to say theslaves of the municipality, who serve the city in the public works andother employments; but captives of this kind recover their liberty withgreat difficulty, for, as they are public property and have no particularmaster, there is no one with whom to treat for their ransom, even thoughthey may have the means. To these banos, as I have said, some privateindividuals of the town are in the habit of bringing their captives,especially when they are to be ransomed; because there they can keep themin safety and comfort until their ransom arrives. The king's captivesalso, that are on ransom, do not go out to work with the rest of thecrew, unless when their ransom is delayed; for then, to make them writefor it more pressingly, they compel them to work and go for wood, whichis no light labour.I, however, was one of those on ransom, for when it was discovered that Iwas a captain, although I declared my scanty means and want of fortune,nothing could dissuade them from including me among the gentlemen andthose waiting to be ransomed. They put a chain on me, more as a mark ofthis than to keep me safe, and so I passed my life in that bano withseveral other gentlemen and persons of quality marked out as held toransom; but though at times, or rather almost always, we suffered fromhunger and scanty clothing, nothing distressed us so much as hearing andseeing at every turn the unexampled and unheard-of cruelties my masterinflicted upon the Christians. Every day he hanged a man, impaled one,cut off the ears of another; and all with so little provocation, or soentirely without any, that the Turks acknowledged he did it merely forthe sake of doing it, and because he was by nature murderously disposedtowards the whole human race. The only one that fared at all well withhim was a Spanish soldier, something de Saavedra by name, to whom henever gave a blow himself, or ordered a blow to be given, or addressed ahard word, although he had done things that will dwell in the memory ofthe people there for many a year, and all to recover his liberty; and forthe least of the many things he did we all dreaded that he would beimpaled, and he himself was in fear of it more than once; and only thattime does not allow, I could tell you now something of what that soldierdid, that would interest and astonish you much more than the narration ofmy own tale.To go on with my story; the courtyard of our prison was overlooked by thewindows of the house belonging to a wealthy Moor of high position; andthese, as is usual in Moorish houses, were rather loopholes than windows,and besides were covered with thick and close lattice-work. It sohappened, then, that as I was one day on the terrace of our prison withthree other comrades, trying, to pass away the time, how far we couldleap with our chains, we being alone, for all the other Christians hadgone out to work, I chanced to raise my eyes, and from one of theselittle closed windows I saw a reed appear with a cloth attached to theend of it, and it kept waving to and fro, and moving as if making signsto us to come and take it. We watched it, and one of those who were withme went and stood under the reed to see whether they would let it drop,or what they would do, but as he did so the reed was raised and movedfrom side to side, as if they meant to say "no" by a shake of the head.The Christian came back, and it was again lowered, making the samemovements as before. Another of my comrades went, and with him the samehappened as with the first, and then the third went forward, but with thesame result as the first and second. Seeing this I did not like not totry my luck, and as soon as I came under the reed it was dropped and fellinside the bano at my feet. I hastened to untie the cloth, in which Iperceived a knot, and in this were ten cianis, which are coins of basegold, current among the Moors, and each worth ten reals of our money.It is needless to say I rejoiced over this godsend, and my joy was notless than my wonder as I strove to imagine how this good fortune couldhave come to us, but to me specially; for the evident unwillingness todrop the reed for any but me showed that it was for me the favour wasintended. I took my welcome money, broke the reed, and returned to theterrace, and looking up at the window, I saw a very white hand put outthat opened and shut very quickly. From this we gathered or fancied thatit must be some woman living in that house that had done us thiskindness, and to show that we were grateful for it, we made salaams afterthe fashion of the Moors, bowing the head, bending the body, and crossingthe arms on the breast. Shortly afterwards at the same window a smallcross made of reeds was put out and immediately withdrawn. This sign ledus to believe that some Christian woman was a captive in the house, andthat it was she who had been so good to us; but the whiteness of the handand the bracelets we had perceived made us dismiss that idea, though wethought it might be one of the Christian renegades whom their mastersvery often take as lawful wives, and gladly, for they prefer them to thewomen of their own nation. In all our conjectures we were wide of thetruth; so from that time forward our sole occupation was watching andgazing at the window where the cross had appeared to us, as if it wereour pole-star; but at least fifteen days passed without our seeing eitherit or the hand, or any other sign and though meanwhile we endeavouredwith the utmost pains to ascertain who it was that lived in the house,and whether there were any Christian renegade in it, nobody could evertell us anything more than that he who lived there was a rich Moor ofhigh position, Hadji Morato by name, formerly alcaide of La Pata, anoffice of high dignity among them. But when we least thought it was goingto rain any more cianis from that quarter, we saw the reed suddenlyappear with another cloth tied in a larger knot attached to it, and thisat a time when, as on the former occasion, the bano was deserted andunoccupied.We made trial as before, each of the same three going forward before Idid; but the reed was delivered to none but me, and on my approach it waslet drop. I untied the knot and I found forty Spanish gold crowns with apaper written in Arabic, and at the end of the writing there was a largecross drawn. I kissed the cross, took the crowns and returned to theterrace, and we all made our salaams; again the hand appeared, I madesigns that I would read the paper, and then the window was closed. Wewere all puzzled, though filled with joy at what had taken place; and asnone of us understood Arabic, great was our curiosity to know what thepaper contained, and still greater the difficulty of finding some one toread it. At last I resolved to confide in a renegade, a native of Murcia,who professed a very great friendship for me, and had given pledges thatbound him to keep any secret I might entrust to him; for it is the customwith some renegades, when they intend to return to Christian territory,to carry about them certificates from captives of mark testifying, inwhatever form they can, that such and such a renegade is a worthy man whohas always shown kindness to Christians, and is anxious to escape on thefirst opportunity that may present itself. Some obtain these testimonialswith good intentions, others put them to a cunning use; for when they goto pillage on Christian territory, if they chance to be cast away, ortaken prisoners, they produce their certificates and say that from thesepapers may be seen the object they came for, which was to remain onChristian ground, and that it was to this end they joined the Turks intheir foray. In this way they escape the consequences of the firstoutburst and make their peace with the Church before it does them anyharm, and then when they have the chance they return to Barbary to becomewhat they were before. Others, however, there are who procure thesepapers and make use of them honestly, and remain on Christian soil. Thisfriend of mine, then, was one of these renegades that I have described;he had certificates from all our comrades, in which we testified in hisfavour as strongly as we could; and if the Moors had found the papersthey would have burned him alive.I knew that he understood Arabic very well, and could not only speak butalso write it; but before I disclosed the whole matter to him, I askedhim to read for me this paper which I had found by accident in a hole inmy cell. He opened it and remained some time examining it and mutteringto himself as he translated it. I asked him if he understood it, and hetold me he did perfectly well, and that if I wished him to tell me itsmeaning word for word, I must give him pen and ink that he might do itmore satisfactorily. We at once gave him what he required, and he setabout translating it bit by bit, and when he had done he said:"All that is here in Spanish is what the Moorish paper contains, and youmust bear in mind that when it says 'Lela Marien' it means 'Our Lady theVirgin Mary.'"We read the paper and it ran thus:"When I was a child my father had a slave who taught me to pray theChristian prayer in my own language, and told me many things about LelaMarien. The Christian died, and I know that she did not go to the fire,but to Allah, because since then I have seen her twice, and she told meto go to the land of the Christians to see Lela Marien, who had greatlove for me. I know not how to go. I have seen many Christians, butexcept thyself none has seemed to me to be a gentleman. I am young andbeautiful, and have plenty of money to take with me. See if thou canstcontrive how we may go, and if thou wilt thou shalt be my husband there,and if thou wilt not it will not distress me, for Lela Marien will findme some one to marry me. I myself have written this: have a care to whomthou givest it to read: trust no Moor, for they are all perfidious. I amgreatly troubled on this account, for I would not have thee confide inanyone, because if my father knew it he would at once fling me down awell and cover me with stones. I will put a thread to the reed; tie theanswer to it, and if thou hast no one to write for thee in Arabic, tellit to me by signs, for Lela Marien will make me understand thee. She andAllah and this cross, which I often kiss as the captive bade me, protectthee."Judge, sirs, whether we had reason for surprise and joy at the words ofthis paper; and both one and the other were so great, that the renegadeperceived that the paper had not been found by chance, but had been inreality addressed to some one of us, and he begged us, if what hesuspected were the truth, to trust him and tell him all, for he wouldrisk his life for our freedom; and so saying he took out from his breasta metal crucifix, and with many tears swore by the God the imagerepresented, in whom, sinful and wicked as he was, he truly andfaithfully believed, to be loyal to us and keep secret whatever we choseto reveal to him; for he thought and almost foresaw that by means of herwho had written that paper, he and all of us would obtain our liberty,and he himself obtain the object he so much desired, his restoration tothe bosom of the Holy Mother Church, from which by his own sin andignorance he was now severed like a corrupt limb. The renegade said thiswith so many tears and such signs of repentance, that with one consent weall agreed to tell him the whole truth of the matter, and so we gave hima full account of all, without hiding anything from him. We pointed outto him the window at which the reed appeared, and he by that means tooknote of the house, and resolved to ascertain with particular care wholived in it. We agreed also that it would be advisable to answer theMoorish lady's letter, and the renegade without a moment's delay tookdown the words I dictated to him, which were exactly what I shall tellyou, for nothing of importance that took place in this affair has escapedmy memory, or ever will while life lasts. This, then, was the answerreturned to the Moorish lady:"The true Allah protect thee, Lady, and that blessed Marien who is thetrue mother of God, and who has put it into thy heart to go to the landof the Christians, because she loves thee. Entreat her that she bepleased to show thee how thou canst execute the command she gives thee,for she will, such is her goodness. On my own part, and on that of allthese Christians who are with me, I promise to do all that we can forthee, even to death. Fail not to write to me and inform me what thou dostmean to do, and I will always answer thee; for the great Allah has givenus a Christian captive who can speak and write thy language well, as thoumayest see by this paper; without fear, therefore, thou canst inform usof all thou wouldst. As to what thou sayest, that if thou dost reach theland of the Christians thou wilt be my wife, I give thee my promise uponit as a good Christian; and know that the Christians keep their promisesbetter than the Moors. Allah and Marien his mother watch over thee, myLady."The paper being written and folded I waited two days until the bano wasempty as before, and immediately repaired to the usual walk on theterrace to see if there were any sign of the reed, which was not long inmaking its appearance. As soon as I saw it, although I could notdistinguish who put it out, I showed the paper as a sign to attach thethread, but it was already fixed to the reed, and to it I tied the paper;and shortly afterwards our star once more made its appearance with thewhite flag of peace, the little bundle. It was dropped, and I picked itup, and found in the cloth, in gold and silver coins of all sorts, morethan fifty crowns, which fifty times more strengthened our joy anddoubled our hope of gaining our liberty. That very night our renegadereturned and said he had learned that the Moor we had been told of livedin that house, that his name was Hadji Morato, that he was enormouslyrich, that he had one only daughter the heiress of all his wealth, andthat it was the general opinion throughout the city that she was the mostbeautiful woman in Barbary, and that several of the viceroys who camethere had sought her for a wife, but that she had been always unwillingto marry; and he had learned, moreover, that she had a Christian slavewho was now dead; all which agreed with the contents of the paper. Weimmediately took counsel with the renegade as to what means would have tobe adopted in order to carry off the Moorish lady and bring us all toChristian territory; and in the end it was agreed that for the present weshould wait for a second communication from Zoraida (for that was thename of her who now desires to be called Maria), because we saw clearlythat she and no one else could find a way out of all these difficulties.When we had decided upon this the renegade told us not to be uneasy, forhe would lose his life or restore us to liberty. For four days the banowas filled with people, for which reason the reed delayed its appearancefor four days, but at the end of that time, when the bano was, as itgenerally was, empty, it appeared with the cloth so bulky that itpromised a happy birth. Reed and cloth came down to me, and I foundanother paper and a hundred crowns in gold, without any other coin. Therenegade was present, and in our cell we gave him the paper to read,which was to this effect:"I cannot think of a plan, senor, for our going to Spain, nor has LelaMarien shown me one, though I have asked her. All that can be done is forme to give you plenty of money in gold from this window. With it ransomyourself and your friends, and let one of you go to the land of theChristians, and there buy a vessel and come back for the others; and hewill find me in my father's garden, which is at the Babazon gate near theseashore, where I shall be all this summer with my father and myservants. You can carry me away from there by night without any danger,and bring me to the vessel. And remember thou art to be my husband, elseI will pray to Marien to punish thee. If thou canst not trust anyone togo for the vessel, ransom thyself and do thou go, for I know thou wiltreturn more surely than any other, as thou art a gentleman and aChristian. Endeavour to make thyself acquainted with the garden; and whenI see thee walking yonder I shall know that the bano is empty and I willgive thee abundance of money. Allah protect thee, senor."These were the words and contents of the second paper, and on hearingthem, each declared himself willing to be the ransomed one, and promisedto go and return with scrupulous good faith; and I too made the sameoffer; but to all this the renegade objected, saying that he would not onany account consent to one being set free before all went together, asexperience had taught him how ill those who have been set free keeppromises which they made in captivity; for captives of distinctionfrequently had recourse to this plan, paying the ransom of one who was togo to Valencia or Majorca with money to enable him to arm a bark andreturn for the others who had ransomed him, but who never came back; forrecovered liberty and the dread of losing it again efface from the memoryall the obligations in the world. And to prove the truth of what he said,he told us briefly what had happened to a certain Christian gentlemanalmost at that very time, the strangest case that had ever occurred eventhere, where astonishing and marvellous things are happening everyinstant. In short, he ended by saying that what could and ought to bedone was to give the money intended for the ransom of one of usChristians to him, so that he might with it buy a vessel there in Algiersunder the pretence of becoming a merchant and trader at Tetuan and alongthe coast; and when master of the vessel, it would be easy for him to hiton some way of getting us all out of the bano and putting us on board;especially if the Moorish lady gave, as she said, money enough to ransomall, because once free it would be the easiest thing in the world for usto embark even in open day; but the greatest difficulty was that theMoors do not allow any renegade to buy or own any craft, unless it be alarge vessel for going on roving expeditions, because they are afraidthat anyone who buys a small vessel, especially if he be a Spaniard, onlywants it for the purpose of escaping to Christian territory. This howeverhe could get over by arranging with a Tagarin Moor to go shares with himin the purchase of the vessel, and in the profit on the cargo; and undercover of this he could become master of the vessel, in which case helooked upon all the rest as accomplished. But though to me and mycomrades it had seemed a better plan to send to Majorca for the vessel,as the Moorish lady suggested, we did not dare to oppose him, fearingthat if we did not do as he said he would denounce us, and place us indanger of losing all our lives if he were to disclose our dealings withZoraida, for whose life we would have all given our own. We thereforeresolved to put ourselves in the hands of God and in the renegade's; andat the same time an answer was given to Zoraida, telling her that wewould do all she recommended, for she had given as good advice as if LelaMarien had delivered it, and that it depended on her alone whether wewere to defer the business or put it in execution at once. I renewed mypromise to be her husband; and thus the next day that the bano chanced tobe empty she at different times gave us by means of the reed and clothtwo thousand gold crowns and a paper in which she said that the nextJuma, that is to say Friday, she was going to her father's garden, butthat before she went she would give us more money; and if it were notenough we were to let her know, as she would give us as much as we asked,for her father had so much he would not miss it, and besides she kept allthe keys.We at once gave the renegade five hundred crowns to buy the vessel, andwith eight hundred I ransomed myself, giving the money to a Valencianmerchant who happened to be in Algiers at the time, and who had mereleased on his word, pledging it that on the arrival of the first shipfrom Valencia he would pay my ransom; for if he had given the money atonce it would have made the king suspect that my ransom money had beenfor a long time in Algiers, and that the merchant had for his ownadvantage kept it secret. In fact my master was so difficult to deal withthat I dared not on any account pay down the money at once. The Thursdaybefore the Friday on which the fair Zoraida was to go to the garden shegave us a thousand crowns more, and warned us of her departure, beggingme, if I were ransomed, to find out her father's garden at once, and byall means to seek an opportunity of going there to see her. I answered ina few words that I would do so, and that she must remember to commend usto Lela Marien with all the prayers the captive had taught her. Thishaving been done, steps were taken to ransom our three comrades, so as toenable them to quit the bano, and lest, seeing me ransomed and themselvesnot, though the money was forthcoming, they should make a disturbanceabout it and the devil should prompt them to do something that mightinjure Zoraida; for though their position might be sufficient to relieveme from this apprehension, nevertheless I was unwilling to run any riskin the matter; and so I had them ransomed in the same way as I was,handing over all the money to the merchant so that he might with safetyand confidence give security; without, however, confiding our arrangementand secret to him, which might have been dangerous.