Fabiola : or, The church of the catacombs - Digital Repository Services

Sards find Portuguese, a] -.really inferior in point of
numbers, p; rfonue i
tain was prepared to ilio rather than yield, and I!
precious part of his cargo, tho object of all thin Moo.!
UUCP, was tho pirate, Bruno. But the cannonade of the Turks
was battering tho vessel to pieces; the deel. ,va:: covered with
the dead and tho dying; nil was lost; destruction
evitablc. Tho Spanish rapiaiii < nlered tlio hold wh
brigand lay in chains, and offered him his liberty on condition
that he would engage in defence of the "
ves-el. Indeed," said
Brnno, " I shall have tho greatest pleasure in helping yon. I
assure you I was getting v< ry Kick of being in {he midst of all
this uproar without being able to have a finger in it."
Tho Spaniard exacted from him a promise that he would not
make his escape before they arrived in port.
Bruno tic
his chains were struck off, and the freebooter mounted tho
deck, sword in hand. But it was too late; tho Turks had
already boarded tho vessel, and were crowding the JerV-i.
Bruno fought like a lion in tho midst of these miscreants, and
he piled up their corpses in the form of an entranehment, behind
which ho resisted manfully, long after tho rest of the crew
were lulled or taken prisoners. A moment after, and lie too
was carried down again to his place of confinement. "There
are two of us to play at this game now," said Bruno.
The privateer reached Algiers in safer?, and the captain and.
Bruno, who had struck up a great friendship, wens sold to different
masters. The pirate chief, when it came t > bo known
who he was, fa-ed very badly, and he suffered severely from
ill-tieatment and hard labor. Before a month was over he had
three several times attempted to make his escape, at w'. ich the
whole town was up in amis. Ho was wounded, recaptured, and
thrown into a dungeon, heavily chained, where the bad air, tho
heat, and the want of food, soon reduced this strong, powerful
man to the weakness of a child. Tho Turks regarded him as a
refractory subject, and despairing of obtaining his rausom, they
suffered no doctor to go near him, in hopes that death would
soon put an end to his existence. But the strengtli of his constitution
was so great, that it bore him up through a space of
fivo -mouths.
Just at this juncture, some Beligious of the Order of Mercy
for the Kedemption of Captives arrived in tho states of Bar-
bary. The poor wretched prisoners were assembled together
from all parts of the town of Algiers, and amongst them were
the dpaoish captain and the remainder of his crew. After all
preparations had been made for their departure, and tho ran-
Bom agreed upon they were iu haste to depart ; but the captain
could nowhere discern amongst his unhappy companions
the famous Bruno. He spoke of him at length to the good
Religious, who applied to the Turks, but they appeared to
to know nothing of the matter, and supposed the man in question
must be dead. They made further enquiry, and entered
into communication with his master, who, at last, drew from a
noisome dungeon, a kind of walking skeleton, whom he led
shuddering to the sea-shore. Every care was lavished on this
death-like object, who, however, revived with the fresh air and
wholesome food, and, above all, with the hopes of liberty.
The Spanish cap. aiu hastened to him, and watched beside his
pillow night and day, together with the good lleiigious.
When Bruno had regained his health and strength, the captain
proposed that ho should accompany him to Spain, no
longer as a prisoner, but as a partner in his gains, and offered
to push him forward in the service. One day when he was
talking to him on this subject, notwithstanding the prohibition
of the Brother of Mercy, who was unwillin. ;
that the sick man's
convalescence should be disturbed by considerations of this
kind, he said :
' ; As you have no longer any relations, I presume
have no inducements to return to Fran.that
you
" No relations?" said Bruno; " God only knows that."
" I thought you told me that you were unmarried, and that
yon were an orphan ?"
" I do not remember my mother, but my father was living
BRorm ////.
when I left home, and I had a ln< it do not speak to
I. n