184 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 



"Ah, sir, my house is a hell. I never enter it without finding them 

 at the step of the door, or at the bottom of the stairs ; then each wants 

 to be the first to make me listen to the complaints which she has to 

 bring against her companions. 1 am about to utter blasphemy, but I 

 think that our holy religion ought to i^rohibit a i)lurality of wives to 

 those who are not rich enough to give to each a separate habitation." 



" But since the Koran allows you to repudiate even legitimate wives, 

 why do you not send back three of them to their parents ? " 



" Why ? Because that would ruin me. On the day of the marriage 

 the father of the young woman to be married stipulates for a dowry, and 

 the half of it is paid. The other half may be exacted the day that the 

 woman is repudiated. It would then be three half-dowries that I shouZd 

 have to pay if I sent back three of my wives. I ought, however, to 

 rectify one inaccuracy in what I said just now, that my four wives had 

 never agreed together. Once they were agreed among themselves in 

 the feeling of a common hatred. In going through the market I had 

 bought a young negress. In the evening, when I retired to rest, I per- 

 ceived that my wives had prepared no bed for her, and that the unfor- 

 tunate girl was extended on the ground. I rolled up my trowsers and 

 laid them under her head as a kind of pillow. In the morning the 

 distracting cries of the poor slave made me run to her, and I found her 

 nearly sinking under the blows of my four wives ; for once they under- 

 stood each other marvelonsly well." 



In February, 1809, the new Dey, the successor of the ' 6pileur," a 

 short time after having entered on his functions, claimed frow two to three 

 hundred thousand francs — I do not remember exactly the sum — which he 

 pretended was due to him from the French governmeit. M. Dubois 

 Thainville answered that he had received the Emperor's orders not to 

 pay one centime. 



The Dey was furious, and decided upon declaring wtr against us. A 

 declaration of war at Algiers used to be immediately fallowed by putting 

 all the persons of other nations into prison. This tin?e matters were not 

 pushed to this extreme limit. Our names might befiguring on the list 

 of the slaves of the regency; but, in fact, so far ai I was concerned, I 

 remained free in the consular house. By means o/ a pecuniary guaran- 

 tee, contracted with the Swedish consul, M. IST^rderling, I was even 

 permitted to live at his country-house, situatet near the Emperor's 

 fort. 



The most insignificant event was sufficient to modify the ideas of 

 these barbarians. 1 had come into the town cCte day, and was seated 

 at table at M. Dubois Thainville's, when the English consul, Mr. Blank- 

 ley, arrived in great haste, announcing to ourfconsul the entrance into 

 the port of a French prize. " I never will uselessly add," said he, gen- 

 erously, "to the severities of war; I came tqannounce to you, my col- 

 league, that I will give up your prisoners on fi receipt which will insure 

 me the deliverance of an equal number q Englishmen detained in 



