ittle with one so ignorant as kirk
treatment in that century was apt to leave the outcasts of society, nor
had conversion to Islam given him much instruction in its tenets; so that
the conversation generally was on earthly topics, though it always ended
in assurances that Master Arthur would suffer for it if he did not
perceive what was for his good. To which Arthur replied to the effect
that he must suffer rather than deny his faith; and Yusuf, declaring that
a wilful man maun have his way, and that he would rue it too late, went
off affronted, but always returned to the charge at the next opportunity.

Meantime Arthur was free to wander about unmolested and pick up the
language, in which, however, Ulysse made far more rapid progress, and
could be heard chattering away as fast, if not as correctly, as if it
were French or English. The delicious climate and the open-air life were
filling the little fellow with a strength and vigour unknown to him in a
Parisian salon, and he was in the highest spirits among his brown
playfellows, ceasing to pine for his mother and sister; and though he
still came to Arthur for the night, or in any trouble, it was more and
more difficult to get him to submit to be washed and dressed in his tight
European clothes, or to say his prayers. He was always sleepy at night
and volatile in the morning, and could not be got to listen to the little
instructions with which Arthur tried to arm him against Mohammedanism
into which the poor little fellow was likely to drift as ignorantly and
unconsciously as Yusuf himself.

And what was the alternative? Arthur himself never wavered, nor indeed
actually felt that he had a choice; but the prospect before him was
gloomy, and Yusuf did not soften it. The sheyk would sell him, and he
would either be made to work in some mountain-farm, or put on board a
galley; and Yusuf had sufficient experience of the horrors of the latter
to assure him emphatically that the gude leddy of Burnside would break
her heart to think of her bonny laddie there.

'It would more surely break her heart to think of her son giving up his
faith,' returned Arthur.

As to the child, the opinion of the tribe seemed to be that he was just
fit to be sent to the Sultan to be bred as a Janissary. 'He will come
that gate to be as great a man as in his ain countree,' said Yusuf; 'wi'
horse to ride, and sword to bear, and braws to wear, like King Solomon in
all his glory.'

'While his