Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/242

 money, and asked us how it was that we had been successful? We kissed his hand, and threw the 200 ducats, purse and all, into his lap, and besought him that we might not go into the prison anymore, but that our companions also might be liberated. He counted over the ducats and received them with thanks, and patting us on the head, commended us for having done well, and paid him the money according to promise. He then said that he forgave us all, and commanded us that day to be all released from our irons, and to be set free the next day and conducted to the English embassy at Galata. In fact, we were released—and that immediately—by the gipsy smiths, from our irons and fetters, and could not sleep all night long for joy, but tied our rags together, distributed something to the poor prisoners who remained there after us, and bade adieu to them; for the poor fellows wept bitterly, knowing that they were to remain still longer in that miserable prison, and must almost despair of their freedom. These prisoners were,—Balak Dak Istwan, a lieutenant from Erlau, who had already been fourteen years in the tower, Matthias, the hussar, and Christopher, the innkeeper, all three Hungarians; the fourth was the German from Hernstein, who had been a lieutenant in the Croatian fortress Wysyne. These miserable prisoners begged us, if we reached Christendom, to entreat our Emperor on their behalf, that they might be freed from that cruel tower by the exchange of other Turks for them. This we promised to do.

Next day we bade adieu to them with great weeping, and quitted, on the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul, that most gloomy Black Tower, in which we had been shut up two years and five weeks without intermission,