favorable opportunity to acquire the tongue. In our further speech, O
Hadji, you may prefer its use."

"At thy pleasure," the host replied; "though there is no danger of our
being overheard. Nilo, the slave behind me, has been a mute from birth."

Then, without the slightest interruption, the Emir changed his speech
from Greek to Italian.

"My earliest remembrance is of being borne in a woman's arms out of
doors, under a blue sky, along a margin of white sand, an orchard on one
hand, the sea on the other. The report of the waves breaking upon the
shore lives distinctly in my memory; so does the color of the trees in
the orchard which has since become familiar to me as the green of
olives. Equally clear is the recollection that, returning in-doors, I
was carried into a house of stone so large it must have been a castle. I
speak of it, as of the orchard, and the sea, and the roar of the
breakers, quite as much by reference to what I have subsequently seen as
from trust in my memory."

Here the host interrupted him to remark:

"Though an Eastern, I have been a traveller in the west, and the
description reminds me of the eastern shore of Italy in the region of
Brindisi."

"My next recollection," the Emir resumed, "is a child's fright,
occasioned by furious flames, and thick smoke, and noises familiar now
as of battle. There was then a voyage on the sea during which I saw
none but bearded men. The period of perfect knowledge so far as my