doctors, lawyers, or scholars, of France or Spain or England who were knocked down to the highest bidder; their wives, refined and delicate women, were torn from them and sold to brutal masters; children were separated from their parents and educated in the religion of these robber lords. One captive out of every eight was allotted to the dey, a ruler who invariably owed his position to the soldiery, and who almost invariably was doomed to perish by poison or the bowstring when some other leader should arise to win the support and favor of the fickle Janizaries, the veritable rulers of the land. One of these deys confessed to a foreign consul who upbraided him, "The Algerines are a company of rogues"; and he added proudly, "And I am their captain."
An image should appear at this position in the text. To use the entire page scan as a placeholder, edit this page and replace "{{missing image}}" with "{{raw image|The Burton Holmes lectures; (IA burtonholmeslect04holm).pdf/46}}". Otherwise, if you are able to provide the image then please do so. For guidance, see Wikisource:Image guidelines and Help:Adding images. |
DREAMING OF THE PAST
The pirates at one time grew so bold that they threatened to go to Great Britain and drag men out of their beds. Nor