and there were steps and voices. The
Genoese captain was heard exclaiming, 'Open, Madame! you can do so
safely. This is the Algerine captain, who is bound to protect you.'

The maids huddled together behind their lady, who stood forward as the
door opened to admit a stout, squarely-built man in the typical dress of
a Turk,--white turban, purple coat, broad sash crammed with weapons, and
ample trousers,--a truculent-looking figure which made the maids shudder
and embrace one another with suppressed shrieks, but which somehow, even
in the midst of his Eastern salaam, gave the Countess a sense that he was
acting a comedy, and carried her involuntarily back to the Moors whom she
had seen in the _Cid_ on the stage. And looking again, she perceived
that though brown and weather-beaten, there was a certain Northern
ruddiness inherent in his complexion; that his eyes were gray, so far as
they were visible between the surrounding puckers; and his eyebrows,
moustache, and beard not nearly so dark as the hair of the Genoese who
stood cringing beside him as interpreter. She formed her own conclusions
and adhered to them, though he spoke in bad Arabic to the skipper, who
proceeded to explain that El Reis Hamed would offer no injury to Madame
la Comtesse, her suite or property, being bound by treaty between the Dey
and the King of France, but that he required to see her passport. There
was a little blundering in the Italian's French rendering, and Madame de
Bourke was quick to detect the perception of it in the countenance of the
Reis, stolid though it was. She felt no doubt that he was a renegade of
European birth, and watched, with much anxiety as well as curiosity, his
manner of dealing with her passports, which she would not let out of her
own hand. She saw in a moment that though he let the Genoese begin to
interpret them, his eyes were following intelligently; and she hazarded
the observation, 'You understand, sir. You are Frank.'

He turned one startled glance towards the door to see if there were any
listeners, and answered, 'Hollander, Madame.'

The Countess had travelled with diplomatists all her life, and knew a
little of the vernacular of most languages, and it was in Dutch--broken
indeed, but still Dutch--that she declared that she was sure that she
might rely on his protection--a security which in truth she was far from
feeling; for while some of these unfortunate men, renegades only from
weakness, yearned aft