ustomed to it. The ladies made a sort of pet of me, and I was
taught to dance and to sing little native songs. There were other
white girls here, and they were all very kind to me, though they
always seemed very sad, and I could not make out why they cried so
often, especially when they were beaten for crying.

"As I grew bigger, I was not so happy. I had ceased to be a plaything,
and little by little I was set to work to sweep and dust, and then to
sew, and then to do all sorts of work, like the other slave girls. The
other white girls gradually went away, the oldest first. The last two,
who were two or three years older than I was, went about three years
ago.

"At first, I used to wonder why they cried so when they went, and why
the others all cried, too; but by the time the last two left, I had
come to know all about it, and knew that they had been given by the
sultan to his favourite officers.

"There were many white men here, when I first came. When I went out
with one of the slaves, into the town, I saw them often. Sometimes
they would burst into tears when they saw me. Then I used to wonder
why, but I know now that I must have reminded them of girls of their
own, whom they would never see again. Then, till three years ago,
there were about twenty white boys who had been taught to dance and
sing, and who used to come sometimes, dressed up like women, to amuse
the ladies of the harem; but I heard that they were all killed, when
the sultan first thought that the English might come here. One of the
slave girls told me that it was done because the sultan had often
sworn, to the English, that there were no white captives here, and so
he did not wish that any should be found, if they came.

"I don't think that I have anything else to tell you."

"Well, I hope that what you have told me will be enough to enable us,
some day, to find out who you belong to. Evidently you were in some
place that was besieged, eight years ago, and had to surrender. The
garrison were promised their lives and liberty to depart. They were
attacked at night by an armed party, who may have been Hyder's
horsemen, but who were perhaps merely a party of mounted robbers, who
thought that they might be able to take some loot. Most likely they
were defeated, especially as you saw no other captives in the party,
but in the confusion of the night attack, one of them probably came
upon you, and carried you off, thinking you would be an acceptable
pr