Ferdinand, whilst sojourning with his uncle in this province of Anti-Taurus, was but little concerned about what was taking place in the harem of Djezzar. His thoughts were elsewhere. But after his involuntary visit to the gardens, he lent a more attentive ear to what was said about the pacha. He learned that the latter, abandoned entirely to voluptuousness, submitted to the control of a favorite Mingrelian. Soon, without knowing his own share in increasing the sway of the beautiful slave, he heard it repeated every where around him that, did she will it firmly, Baïla could make a Jew of her master, Ali-ben-Ali. “Why not a Christian?” he said to himself. All his thoughts were, from that day, concentrated on this single one—“She is a Christian, and can do any thing with Djezzar.” Oh, how did his divine mission aggrandize in his eyes that toy, which was a small golden cross, which his mother had worn and which never left him. We know the result of the execution of this holy and bold enterprise, the first terrible consequences of which Ferdinand was now undergoing, and the conclusion of which he foresaw, when, after his preparatory punishment, he was led before the pacha, with his hands bound tightly behind his back. The latter was still extended upon his cushion; his head and the arm which held his pipe reposed on the knees of the Mingrelian and his lion Haïder, crouched upon his paws, with his muzzle to the floor and his eyes half closed, was by his side. The slaves retired at a gesture from their master; the scene which was to follow needed no witnesses. The pacha, the Mingrelian, the Christian and the lion alone remained. CHAPTER V. Baïla felt her confidence vanish; a single revelation from the prisoner would be a decree of death to her, and concealing her paleness beneath the redoubled folds of her veil, she awaited the examination with a palpitating heart, fixing her curious gaze upon the prisoner. “Why did I risk my life to listen to a sermon from this mournful preacher?” she said to herself. “Why did they not kill him when I commanded? Why did he not fall beneath the blow of the guard?” Seeing him, however, with his body furrowed by bluish stripes, his flesh swollen and bloody, standing in that saloon as if he had never left it to be handed over to executioners, as he did before the arrival of the pacha, with the same air, the same timid look, which he dared not raise toward her, she felt an emotion of pity. “Christian,” said the pacha, “what motive brought thee hither?” “Her salvation,” replied the captive, turning his eyes for a moment to the sofa on which the odalisk was seated, and then letting them fall on Djezzar, he added, “and thine, perhaps.” “What, dog, and son of a dog, as thou art, didst thou think to make a vile Nazarene of me, and to convert me to the sect of the accursed, by taking advantage of my absence?”