Page:Paine--Lost ships and lonely seas.djvu/434

386 el Adbin. "Also drag that wicked keeper before me.

The whole company of British seamen was also ordered into the royal presence, and four of the most stalwart were selected and told to take the sticks and break them on the keeper's bones. The victim was stretched on the ground, and the incensed mariners flogged him with great enthusiasm while the emperor encouraged them to make a thorough job of it or have their own bones broken. The guards carted away what was left of the keeper, and he died an hour later.

From Fez the captives were carried to Tetuan to await tidings from the British ambassador to Morocco, who was striving to obtain their release. At parting with their black overseer, he made the logical remark:

"Now I have no more to do with you; and if ever you catch me in your country, I expect no better usage than you have had here."

The negotiations moved haltingly while the sailors waited in prison in Tetuan. After a long delay enough money was received from Gibraltar to redeem twenty-five of them, who were selected by the governor of the city, "who dismissed them with wishes for a happy voyage." Three weeks afterward the balance of the cash came to Tetuan, but