Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/176

 ration of that time, he releases them on parole, and, after that time, they can marry and settle there at their liking, or return to their own country. When, moreover, any one wishes to ransom himself, or earn his liberty, since no Turk promises for a Christian, he must produce as security ten or twenty other Christian captives, that is to say, should he during that time escape before he has earned his liberty, or should a captive who is ransoming himself not bring his price by a certain day, then these, his sureties, become liable, one to have an eye struck out, a second to have an ear, a third to have his nose, a fourth to have the thumbs of both his hands, and the toes of both his feet cut off, or the teeth on one side of his jaw knocked out, or to receive so many hundred blows on his belly, the calves of his legs, and the soles of his feet. Not till any given captive obtains such sureties (and it is seldom that any one makes such an engagement) is he released to go to Christendom, and if he is not to be found, and does not pay his ransom, his sureties have to suffer according to their bond.

In my time I saw a captive Hungarian in that prison who had become surety for a friend, who, on arriving in Christendom, like a knave as he was, forgot his benefactor and did not return. The poor surety had, therefore, for about two years, to bear two sets of fetters, his own and those of the person for whom he had made the engagement, to lose one ear, his four front teeth, both the thumbs on his hands, all the toes on his feet, and to be frightfully beaten with a stick every Friday. This continued until the late Palfi, of blessed memory, heard of it, and ordered the Hungarian, who had come from