“It is indeed,” Gervaise replied earnestly.  “But I should be glad, sir, if you will allow that the time should begin to count afresh from our present start.  We have really had but a short period of service, for we wasted a week at Genoa, and ten days on our journey back here, so that we have had really no more than a month’s active service.”

“Yes, if you count only by time,” D’Aubusson said, with a smile.  “Reckoning by results, you have done a good five years’ cruise.  However, so small a request can certainly be granted.  The places of the two knights who were killed, and of four others whose wounds are reported to me as being too severe for them to be fit for service for some time, shall be filled up at once from the langues to which each belonged.  You will cruise among the Western islands, whence complaints have reached us of a corsair who has been plundering and burning.  Sometimes he is heard of as far north as Negropont, at others he is off the south of the Morea; then, again, we hear of him among the Cyclades.  We have been unwilling to despatch another galley, for there is ample employment for every one here.  After the blow you have struck on the Moorish corsairs, they are likely to be quiet for a little.  You had best, therefore, try for a time if you cannot come across this pirate.  You must let me know how much you paid for the vessels you used as fire ships, and to the Sards; this is an expense chargeable to the general service.  I may tell you that to me it is due that no recognition of your exploits, such as that which Genoa bestowed upon you, will be made.  At the council this morning it was urged that some signal mark of honour should be granted; but I interposed, saying that you had already received exceptional promotion, and that it would not be for your good, or that of the Order, for so young a knight to be raised to an official position of a character usually held by seniors, and that I was perfectly sure you would prefer remaining in command of your galley to any promotion whatever that would retain you on the Island.”

“Indeed I should, your Highness.  I wish to gain experience and to do service to the Order, and so far from pleasing me, promotion would trouble and distress me, and, could it have been done, I would most gladly have sent home the prizes, instead of going to Genoa, and would myself have continued the cruise.”

“So the Cavalier Caretto told me,” the grand master replied.  “Very well, then.  In three days you shall set out again.  The admiral tells me that never before has a galley returned with the slaves in such good health and condition, and that unquestionably your plan of erecting an awning to shelter them from the midday heat and the night dews has had a most beneficial effect on their health; he has recommended its general adoption.”

Three days later the Santa Barbara again left port, and was soon upon her station.  For some weeks she cruised backwards and forwards along the coast and among the islands.  They often heard of the pirate ship, but all their efforts to find her were unavailing.