"Well," the rector said, "they might have killed him, or he might have died of a fever in that pestilential country. Yes, I think Providence is watching over him!" The news had come in a bulky envelope that had been forwarded to Dr. Eccleston by the State Department. "Read that," cried the rector, tossing the letter into my lap, "and see what becomes of lads who leave comfortable homes to sail the ocean!" He lit his pipe and fell to brooding, while I gleaned from the roughly scribbled epistle the story of Alexander's capture by Turkish corsairs. That the Mediterranean Sea was infested by pirates Captain Stephens, with whom Alexander sailed, well knew. But Cadiz lay outside of the usual zone of the buccaneers, and the idea of danger from corsairs scarcely entered the thoughts of the skipper and his men. Yet, on July 25, 1785, while the _Marie_ was passing Cape Saint Vincent, she was pursued by a rakish lateen-sailed vessel. Despite desperate attempts to outsail her pursuer, she was soon overtaken. Threatened by fourteen ugly cannon, she awaited the approach of the stranger. The _Marie_ was hailed in Spanish. Captain Stephens shouted in reply the name and destination of his vessel. He had little doubt that he would be allowed to proceed and was on the point of giving orders to resume the voyage, when a crowd of seamen in Turkish dress appeared on the deck of the vessel, which now was found to be an Algerine corsair. The dark, bearded faces of the Moslems were forbidding enough, but when the Mussulmans drew near with savage gestures and a wild brandishing of weapons, the _Marie's_ men knew that either death or slavery awaited them. A launch thronged with Moors and Arabs, armed with pistols, scimeters, pikes and spears, put out from the side of the zebec. They fired several volleys that came dangerously close to the heads of the American sailors, and threatened to slaughter the crew if they resisted. Captain Stephens, when a pistol was held against his breast, surrendered his ship. He and his crew were transferred to the corsair, first having been stripped of all their clothes except their undergarments. They were pricked and prodded until they reached the forepart of the Algerine ship, where the commander, Rais Ibrahim, a vicious-looking old Moor, who kept his hand on the pistol that protruded from his sash as if his fingers itched to fire a bullet into a Christian's body, repeated the threat of massacre if the captives disobeyed his orders. Captain Stephens, who spoke Spanish, went as far as was safe in protesting against the seizure. Rais Ibrahim, crying upon Allah to wipe out all Christians, replied that the ships of Barbary were no longer limited by the Mediterranean Sea. He declared that Algiers had made a peace with her ancient enemy Spain and was free now to send her vessels through the Strait into the Atlantic.