But there was danger, then, of losing the felucca and her brave people among the Turks ?" "There was, in truth, a Tunis-man prowling about, between Stromboli and Sicily; but, Ali di San Michele! he might better have chased the cloud above the volcano than run after the felucca in a sirocco!" "Thou wast chicken-hearted, Stefano!" "I!--I was more like thy lion here, with some small additions of chains and muzzles." "As was seen by thy felucca's speed ?" "Cospetto! I wished myself a knight of San Giovanni a thousand times during the chase, and La Bella Sorrentina a brave Maltese galley, if it were only for the cause of Christian honor! The miscreant hung upon my quarter for the better part of three glasses; so near, that I could tell which of the knaves wore dirty cloth in his turban, and which clean.

It was a sore sight to a Christian, Stefano, to see the right thus borne upon by an infidel." "And thy feet warmed with the thought of the bastinado, caro mio ?" "I have run too often barefoot over our Calabrian mountains, to tingle at the sole with every fancy of that sort." "Every man has his weak spot, and I know thine to be dread of a Turk's arm.

Thy native hills have their soft as well as their hard ground, but it is said the Tunisian chooses a board knotty as his own heart, when he amuses himself with the wailings of a Christian." "Well, the happiest of us all must take such as fortune brings.

If my soles are to be shod with blows, the honest priest of Sant' Agata will be cheated by a penitent.

I have bargained with the good curato, that all such accidental calamities shall go in the general account of penance.