carrying stones
until not only all the strength, but apparently all the spirit, was
taken out of him.

From this condition he was reviving slightly when he reached the
market-place, and, as his strength returned, the firm pressure of his
lips and contraction of his brows increased.

The slave-drivers were not slow to observe this, and two of them took
the precaution to stand near him. It was at this critical moment that
the poor youth suddenly beheld Angela Diego led into the market--more
interesting and beautiful than ever in her sorrow--to be sold as a
slave.

Mariano had been deeply touched by the sorrow and sad fate of the
sisters when he first saw them on board the pirate-vessel. At this
sight of the younger sister, prudence, which had retained but a slight
hold of him during the day, lost command altogether. In a burst of
uncontrollable indignation he sent one of his guards crashing through
the open doorway of the mosque, drove the other against the corner of a
neighbouring house, rushed towards Sidi Hassan, and delivered on the
bridge of that hero's nose a blow that instantly laid him flat on the
ground. At the same moment he was seized by a dozen guards, thrown
down, bound, and carried off to the whipping-house, where he was
bastinadoed until he felt as if bones and flesh, were one mass of
tingling jelly. In this state, almost incapable of standing or walking,
he was carried to the Bagnio, and thrown in among the other prisoners.

While Mariano was being conveyed away, Sidi Hassan arose in a
half-stupefied condition from the ground. Fortunately he was ignorant
of who had knocked him down, and why he had been so treated, or he might
have vented his wrath on poor Angela.

Just at that moment he was accosted by Bacri the Jew--a convenient butt
on whom to relieve himself; for the despised Israelites were treated
with greater indignity in Algiers at that time than perhaps in any other
part of the earth.

"Dog," said he fiercely, "hast thou not business enough of thine own in
fleecing men, that thou shouldst interfere with me?"

"Dog though I may be," returned Bacri, with gravity, but without a touch
of injured feeling, "I do not forget that I promised you four thousand
dollars to spare the Christians, and it is that which induces me to
intrude on you now."

"Humph!" ejaculated Hassan, somewhat mollified; "I verily believe that
thou hast some interested and selfish motive at the bottom. However,
that