’My lord, I will go into the land of Suz and will tarry there.’  And he replied:  ’Do so, and thou shalt hear speedily from me.’  So I arose and departed and went into the land of Suz, even unto Sweerah, which the Nazarenes call Mogadore; and waited with a troubled heart for intelligence from the son of the Moorish king, but no intelligence came, and never since that day have I heard from him, and it is now three years since I was in his presence.  And I sat me down at Mogadore, and I married a wife, a daughter of our nation, and I wrote to my mother, even to Jerusalem, and she sent me money, and with that I entered into commerce, even as my father had done, and I speculated, and I was not successful in my speculations, and I speedily lost all I had.  And now I am come to Gibraltar to speculate on the account of another, a merchant of Mogadore, but I like not my occupation, he has deceived me; I am going back, when I shall again seek the presence of the Moorish king and demand that the treasure of my father be taken from the spoilers and delivered up to me, even to me his son.”

I listened with mute attention to the singular tale of this singular man, and when he had concluded I remained a considerable time without saying a word; at last he inquired what had brought me to Gibraltar.  I told him that I was merely a passer through on my way to Tangier, for which place I expected to sail the following morning.  Whereupon he observed, that in the course of a week or two he expected to be there also, when he hoped that we should meet, as he had much more to tell me.  “And peradventure,” he added, “you can afford me counsel which will be profitable, for you are a person of experience, versed in the ways of many nations; and when I look in your countenance, heaven seems to open to me, for I think I see the countenance of a friend, even of a brother.”  He then bade me farewell, and departed; the strange bearded man, who during our conversation had remained patiently waiting at the door, following him.  I remarked that there was less wildness in his look than on the former occasion, but at the same time, more melancholy, and his features were wrinkled like those of an aged man, though he had not yet passed the prime of youth.

CHAPTER LIII

Genoese Mariners—­St. Michael’s Cave—­Midnight Abysses—­Young American—­A Slave Proprietor—­The Fairy Man—­Infidelity.

Throughout the whole of that night it blew very hard, but as the wind was in the Levant quarter, I had no apprehension of being detained longer at Gibraltar on that account.  I went on board the vessel at an early hour, when I found the crew engaged in hauling the anchor close, and making other preparations for sailing.  They informed me that we should probably start in an hour.  That time however passed, and we still remained where we were, and the captain continued on shore.  We formed one of a small flotilla of Genoese barks, the crews of which