our dealings with Zoraida, for whose life we would
have all given our own. We therefore resolved
to put ourselves in the hands of God and in the renegade’s;
and at the same time an answer was given to Zoraida,
telling her that we would do all she recommended,
for she had given as good advice as if Lela Marien
had delivered it, and that it depended on her alone
whether we were to defer the business or put it in
execution at once. I renewed my promise to be
her husband; and thus the next day that the bano chanced
to be empty she at different times gave us by means
of the reed and cloth two thousand gold crowns and
a paper in which she said that the next Juma, that
is to say Friday, she was going to her father’s
garden, but that before she went she would give us
more money; and if it were not enough 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 all the keys.
We at once gave the renegade five hundred crowns to
buy the vessel, and with eight hundred I ransomed
myself, giving the money to a Valencian merchant who
happened to be in Algiers at the time, and who had
me released on his word, pledging it that on the arrival
of the first ship from Valencia he would pay my ransom;
for if he had given the money at once it would have
made the king suspect that my ransom money had been
for a long time in Algiers, and that the merchant had
for his own advantage kept it secret. In fact
my master was so difficult to deal with that I dared
not on any account pay down the money at once.
The Thursday before the Friday on which the fair Zoraida
was to go to the garden she gave us a thousand crowns
more, and warned us of her departure, begging me,
if I were ransomed, to find out her father’s
garden at once, and by all means to seek an opportunity
of going there to see her. I answered in a few
words that I would do so, and that she must remember
to commend us to Lela Marien with all the prayers
the captive had taught her. This having been
done, steps were taken to ransom our three comrades,
so as to enable them to quit the bano, and lest, seeing
me ransomed and themselves not, though the money was
forthcoming, they should make a disturbance about
it and the devil should prompt them to do something
that might injure Zoraida; for though their position
might be sufficient to relieve me from this apprehension,
nevertheless I was unwilling to run any risk in 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 safety and confidence give security;
without, however, confiding our arrangement and secret
to him, which might have been dangerous.
IN WHICH THE CAPTIVE STILL CONTINUES HIS ADVENTURES
