romised to
him in Rome. Rather than contest the matter in the law courts Vincent
gave up the rectorship and went back to Toulouse, where he continued
to teach and to study.

Some years later he was called suddenly to Bordeaux on business, and
while there heard that an old lady of his acquaintance had left him
all her property. This was welcome news, for Vincent was sadly in
need of money, his journey to Bordeaux having cost more than he was
able to pay.

On returning to Toulouse, however, he found that the prospect was not
so bright as he had been led to expect. The chief part of his
inheritance consisted of a debt of four or five hundred crowns owed
to the old lady by a scoundrel who, as soon as he heard of her death,
made off to Marseilles, thinking to escape without paying. He was
enjoying life and congratulating himself on his cleverness when
Vincent, to whom the sum was a little fortune, and who had determined
to pursue his debtor, suddenly appeared on the scene. The thief was
let off on the payment of three hundred crowns, and Vincent, thinking
that he had made not too bad a bargain, was preparing to return to
Toulouse by road, the usual mode of traveling in those days, when a
friend suggested that to go by sea was not only cheaper, but more
agreeable. It was summer weather; the journey could be accomplished
in one day; the sea was smooth; everything seemed favorable; the two
friends set out together.

A sea voyage in the seventeenth century was by no means like a sea
voyage of the present day. There were no steamers, and vessels
depended on a favorable wind or on hard rowing. The Mediterranean was
infested with Turkish pirates, who robbed and plundered to the very
coasts of France and Italy, carrying off the crews of captured
vessels to prison or slavery.

The day that the two friends had chosen for their journey was that of
the great fair of Beaucaire, which was famous throughout Christendom.
Ships were sailing backwards and forwards along the coast with
cargoes of rich goods or the money for which they had been sold, and
the Turkish pirates were on the lookout.

The boat in which Vincent was sailing was coasting along the Gulf of
Lyons when the sailors became aware that they were being pursued by
three Turkish brigantines. In vain they crowded on all sail; escape
was impossible. After a sharp fight, in which all the men on
Vincent's ship were either killed or wounded--Vincent himself
receiving an arrow