.AUTOGRAPH LETTEKS. 131 



me, and asked permission to pay me a visit to refuse was impossible. 

 He had travelled in France, and was acquainted with the manners of 

 us Parisian ladies. I am compelled to acknowledge that his manners 

 were quite amiable, and he showed the greatest deference towards me. 

 He behaved with so much kindness, that on this first visit I did not 

 venture to ask him what were his intentions ; but I entreated him to 

 let me see my sisters, and hoped my poor brother would not be 

 ill-treated. He assured me that my brother should be ransomed 

 for a trifling sum, which he, himself would disburse, as his high- 

 ness the Dey had recently made a law, whereby no Christian could 

 be liberated unless a certain sum is paid into the treasury, and 

 as to my sisters he regretted extremely they had been separated 

 from me, as he had given no orders so to do. He was going, he said, 

 on the following day to Algiers, and on his return, they should accom- 

 pany him. Could any thing be more kind, considering how I was 

 situated ? Two black eunuchs, ugly beyond what vou can conceive, 

 were appointed to receive my orders, or rather, to gunrd me, and prevent 

 any attempt at escape ; and six lovely young girls, as beautiful as 

 angels, three of whom are French, were to be my slaves ; they cost 

 Ben Grami 2 or 3,000 livres each. Their dress was very becoming, and 

 extremely rich ; their robes tight to their shapes, showed them to 

 great advantage ; their hair plaited in the fashion of the country, and 

 on the top of their heads they wore wreaths of small artificial flowers. 

 Whenever they presented me any refreshments, or perfumed water, or 

 embroidered towels, it was always upon their knees. 



Ben Grami departed, and you may suppose with what impatience 

 I waited his return ; not on his account, most certainly; but 1 felt an 

 ardent desire to embrace my sisters, and console them in their misfor- 

 tunes. Three days elapsed, and Ben Grami did not return. I began 

 to feel alarmed. Aias i my presentiments were but too real. On the 

 fourth day, Eugenie, my favourite attendant, informed me that the 

 house was surrounded by armed moors, and that the chief, accompanied 

 by an eunuch, wished to be introduced to me. He entered, and said that 

 he brought orders from the Dey to conduct me to a different part of the 

 country. I did not understand what this could signify. He then added, 

 that I need not be apprehensive, that the greatest care should be taken 

 of me, and that I had no reason to be sorry for the change in my 

 condition. " You were deceived, lady," he continued, ts in believing 

 that the person who detained you here was the Jew Grami ; it was he 

 who made you a captive, but this dwelling belonged to the prime 

 minister, who was yesterday strangled by orders of the Dey, against 

 whose life he had been plotting for a long time." I shuddered at this 

 horrid intelligence. The man who had given me this dreadful news was 

 a Frenchman, and a renegado. The wretch, smiling at my tears, con- 

 veyed me to the carriage that was prepared far me, and I arrived at the 

 place from whence I address you this letter. My subsequent adventures 

 are extremely wonderful, but at present I am not able to write any 

 more, as the chief eunuch has informed me that his highness the Dey 

 will visit me in half an hour ; and I also learn that a vessel sails for the 

 coast of France to-morrow, and will bring you tidings of your beloved 

 cousin, who embraces you a thousand times, and with all her heart. 



EMILIE. 



K 2 



