one of her suite, it would depend on the temper of the English Consul
whether he should be viewed as a subject or as a rebel, or simply left
to captivity until his Scottish relations should have the choice of
ransoming him.

She took a good deal of pains to explain the circumstances to him as
well as to all who could understand them; for though she hoped to keep
all together, and to be able to act for them herself, no one could
guess how they might be separated, and she could not shake off that
foreboding of misfortune which had haunted her from the first.

The kingdom of Algiers was, she told them, tributary to the Turkish
Sultan, who kept a guard of Janissaries there, from among whom they
themselves elected the Dey. He was supposed to govern by the consent
of a divan, but was practically as despotic as any Eastern sovereign;
and the Aga of the Janissaries was next in authority to him. Piracy on
the Mediterranean was, as all knew, the chief occupation of the Turks
and Moors of any spirit or enterprise, a Turk being in authority in
each vessel to secure that the Sultan had his share, and that the
capture was so conducted as not to involve Turkey in dangerous wars
with European powers. Capture by the Moors had for several centuries
been one of the ordinary contingencies of a voyage, and the misfortune
that had happened to the party was not at all an unusual one.

In 1687, however, the nuisance had grown to such a height that Admiral
Du Quesne bombarded the town of Algiers, and destroyed all the
fortifications, peace being only granted on condition that a French
Consul should reside at Algiers, and that French ships and subjects
should be exempt from this violence of the corsairs.