< Page:The Burton Holmes lectures; (IA burtonholmeslect04holm).pdf
This page needs to be proofread.

doctors, lawyers, or scholars, of France or Spain or England

who were knocked down to the highest bidder; their wives, refined and delicate women, were torn from them and sold to brutal masters; children were separated from their parents and educated in the religion of these robber lords. One captive out of every eight was allotted to the dey, a ruler who invariably owed his position to the soldiery, and who almost invariably was doomed to perish by poison or the bowstring when some other leader should arise to win the support and favor of the fickle Janizaries, the veritable rulers of the land. One of these deys confessed to a foreign consul who upbraided him, "The Algerines are a company of rogues"; and he added proudly, "And I am their captain."

DREAMING OF THE PAST

The pirates at one time grew so bold that they threatened to go to Great Britain and drag men out of their beds. Nor

    This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.