the Sicilians should pay them 450 pounds
before any negotiations for peace should be entered on. The rejection
of this proposal did not, of course, facilitate the arrangements that
were now being made, and when Omar demanded that, in cases of exchange
of prisoners, _two_ Algerines should be returned for each Sicilian slave
set free, it was seen that the prospect of a speedy termination of
hostilities was not bright.

After some days spent in useless discussion, the worthy priest was
obliged to return home without accomplishing his mission.

One good result, however, followed. Those captives who had been
condemned to death, and for whom ransoms had been offered, were
reprieved; nevertheless, they were treated with cruel severity. Of
course the unfortunates for whom no ransom had been offered were treated
with the utmost rigour, and the sentences of such as had been condemned
to die were ordered to be carried out. In the case of poor Mariano the
sentence was altered, for that headstrong youth had in his despair made
such a fierce assault on his jailers that, despite his chains, he had
well-nigh strangled three of them before he was effectually secured. He
was therefore condemned to be buried alive in one of the huge square
blocks of concrete with which the walls of a part of the fortifications
were being strengthened. (See Note 1.)

While these things were pending, very different scenes were taking place
at the French consulate, for great preparations were going on for a
mask-ball which was about to take place there.

It may, perhaps, appear strange to some readers that any one could have
the heart to engage in gaieties in the midst of such horrible scenes of
injustice, cruelty, and death, but it must be remembered that human
beings have a wonderful capacity for becoming used and indifferent to
circumstances the most peculiar--as all history assures us--and it must
also be borne in remembrance that the unfortunate Sicilian captives,
whose sorrows and sufferings we have tried to depict, were a mere
fraction of the community in the midst of which they suffered. It is
probable that the great body of the people in Algiers at that time knew
little, and cared less, about the Riminis and their brethren.

Since the reconciliation of the English and French Consuls, at the time
when the representative of Denmark was rescued, the Frenchman had
displayed great cordiality to the Briton--not only accepting the
invitations