You have nicked it there! If a thing must be done, then take a lead in it, whatever it may be.

A plaguy good precept, which has stood me in excellent stead before now.

I cannot bear in mind whether I told you how I was at one time taken prisoner by the Turks and conveyed to Stamboul.

There were a hundred of us or more, but the others either perished under the bastinado, or are to this day chained to an oar in the Imperial Ottoman galleys, where they are like to remain until they die under the lash, or until some Venetian or Genoese bullet finds its way into their wretched carcasses.

I alone came off with my freedom.' 'And pray, how did you make your escape ?' I asked.
'By the use of the wit wherewith Providence hath endowed me,' he answered complacently; 'for, seeing that their accursed religion is the blind side of these infidels, I did set myself to work upon it.