f his desires. The wretched
old cadi, who was so blinded by his passion that he would have listened
to any absurdity they proposed, eagerly fell in with this scheme as one
full of promise; and so indeed it was, but not as he imagined; for the
intention of his two advisers was to make off with the boat, and pitch
the old fool into the sea.

But a difficulty occurred to the cadi, one of the greatest in his eyes
that could possibly be. It occurred to him that his wife would not let
him go to Constantinople without her; but presently he got over this
obstacle by saying, that instead of buying a Christian woman to put to
death in Leonisa's name, he would make Halima serve his turn, for he
longed with all his heart to be rid of her. Mahmoud and Ricardo agreed
to this expedient as readily as he proposed it, and this being finally
settled, the cadi that same day imparted to his wife his design of
setting out at once for Constantinople, to present the Christian captive
to the Sultan, who, he expected would, in his munificence, make him
grand cadi of Cairo or Constantinople. Halima, with great alacrity,
expressed her approval of his intention, believing that Mario would be
left at home; but when the cadi told her that he would take both him and
Mahmoud along with him, she changed her mind, and began to dissuade him
from what she had before advised; and finally, she told him that unless
she went with him she would not allow him to go at all. The cadi had
great satisfaction in complying with her desire, for he thought he would
soon get rid of a burden that hung like a millstone round his neck.

All this while Hassan Pasha was indefatigable in pressing the cadi to
give up the slave girl to him, in return for which he offered him
mountains of gold, and had already made him a present of Ricardo, whose
ransom he valued at two thousand crowns. Moreover, to facilitate the
transfer, he suggested to the cadi the same expedient which the latter
had himself devised, namely, that when the Grand Turk sent for Leonisa
he should pretend she was dead. But all the pasha's gifts, promises, and
entreaties, had no other effect on the cadi than to increase his
eagerness to hasten his departure. Tormented therefore by his own
desires, by Hassan's importunities, and by those of Halima (for she,
too, was amusing herself with vain hopes) he made such despatch that in
twenty days he had equipped a brigantine of fifteen benches, which he
manned with able T