orn. At the
same time muttering, "Christian dog!" he brought a stick smartly down on
the middy's shoulders.

This was too much to bear meekly. The boiling blood in the youth's
heart boiled over into his face. He leaped forward, seized the donkey's
rein with one hand, caught the man's left leg with the other, and hurled
the rider backward to the ground.

The bump with which the Moor's head came down had the effect of keeping
it low, but the spectators of the incident, who were numerous, rushed
upon the poor middy, seized him, and carried him straight to a court of
justice.

They had a summary method of transacting business in those courts,
especially in simple cases like that of which we treat. The
investigation was rapid; the evidence of the witnesses emphatic. Almost
before he had recovered breath our hero was thrown down, his feet were
raised by two strong attendants, his shoes plucked off, and the soles of
his feet made to tingle as if they had been set on fire.

After a few strokes, which he bore in silence, he was led to the common
prison, thrust into it, and left to his meditations.

Meanwhile, Peter the Great conducted Hester to that part of the city
wall where her father was at work among the other slaves. It chanced to
be the hour when the wretched creatures were allowed to cease work for a
brief space in order to rest and eat.

Poor Hugh Sommers chanced to have seated himself a little apart from the
others, so as to get the benefit of a large stone for a seat. His
figure was, therefore, prominent, as he sat there worn, weary, and
dejected, consuming his allowance of black bread. Peter the Great knew
him at once, having already, as the reader knows, seen him in his slave
garb; but Hester's anxious eyes failed for a few moments to pick out the
emaciated frame and strangely clad, ragged figure which represented her
once jovial, stalwart, and well-clothed father.

"Das him," whispered Peter, as he loosely grasped the girl's arm by way
of precaution.

"Where--oh, where?" asked the poor creature, glancing round among the
slaves.

"Now, 'member your promise. Spoil eberyt'ing if you screech or run to
him. Look, dis way! De man what's settin' on de stone!"

"Yes, yes, I see! Oh--"

She stopped abruptly and trembled, for at the moment her father turned
his woe-begone face unconsciously towards her. Even the much-increased
grey tinge in the hair and beard, the lines of despair on the brow, and