DON QUIXOTE – THE CAPTIVE’S TALE – PART 6

(This post is a continuation of Don Quixote – The Captive’s Tale – Parts 1 through 5. If you haven’t done so already, it’s probably best to read those posts before continuing on here.)

Last week, the captive and the lady Zoraida exchanged more letters. Zoraida provided the captive and his companions with a sizable amount of money, and they began making plans for ransom and escape. In this week’s excerpt, we follow the development of those plans.

Upon hearing the contents of the second letter written by the Moorish lady, Zoraida, each of those amongst us declared himself willing to be the ransomed one and promised to go and return with scrupulous good faith. I too made the same offer. But to all this the renegade objected, saying that he would not on any account consent to one being set free before all went together, as experience had taught him how ill those who have been set free keep promises which they made in captivity.

Captives of distinction frequently had recourse to this plan, paying the ransom of one who was to go to Valencia or Majorca with money to enable him to arm a bark and return for the others who had ransomed him, but who never came back. For recovered liberty and the dread of losing it again efface from the memory all the obligations in the world.

To prove the truth of what he said, he told us briefly what had happened to a certain Christian gentleman almost at that very time, the strangest case that had ever occurred even there, where astonishing and marvelous things are happening every instant. In short, he ended by saying that what could and ought to be done was to give the money intended for the ransom of one of us Christians to him, so that he might with it buy a vessel there in Algiers under the pretense of becoming a merchant and trader at Tetouan and along the coast. Then, when master of the vessel, it would be easy for him to hit on some way of getting us all out of the baño and putting us on board, especially if the Moorish lady gave, as she said, money enough to ransom all. Once free, it would be the easiest thing in the world for us to embark, even in open day

The greatest difficulty with this plan was that the Moors do not allow any renegade to buy or own any craft, unless it be a large vessel for going on roving expeditions because they are afraid that anyone who buys a small vessel, especially if he be a Spaniard, only wants it for the purpose of escaping to Christian territory. This, however, the renegade could get over by arranging with a Tagarin Moor to go shares with him in the purchase of the vessel and in the profit on the cargo. Under cover of this, he could become master of the vessel, in which case he looked upon all the rest as accomplished.

But though to me and my comrades it had seemed a better plan to send to Majorca for the vessel, as the Moorish lady suggested, we did not dare to oppose him, fearing that if we did not do as he said, he would denounce us and place us in danger of losing all our lives if he were to disclose our dealings with Zoraida, for whose life we would have all given our own. We therefore resolved to put ourselves in the hands of God and the renegade.

And so we sent an answer to Zoraida, telling her that we would do all she recommended, for she had given as good advice as if Lela Marien had delivered it herself, and that it depended on her alone whether we were to defer the business or put it in execution at once. I also renewed my promise to be her husband.

The next day that the baño chanced to be empty, she at different times gave us by means of the reed and cloth two thousand gold crowns and a paper in which she said that the next Juma, that is to say Friday, she was going to her father’s garden, but that before she went she would give us more money. If it were not enough, we need only let her know, as she would give us as much as we asked, for her father had so much he would not miss it, and besides she kept all the keys.

We at once gave the renegade five hundred crowns to buy the vessel, and with eight hundred I ransomed myself, giving the money to a Valencian merchant who happened to be in Algiers at the time. He had me released on his word, pledging that on the arrival of the first ship from Valencia he would pay my ransom. If he had given the money at once, it would have made the king suspect that my ransom money had been for a long time in Algiers, and that the merchant had for his own advantage kept it secret. In fact, my master was so difficult to deal with that I dared not on any account pay down the money at once.

The Thursday before the Friday on which the fair Zoraida was to go to the garden, she gave us a thousand crowns more, and warned us of her departure, begging me, if I were ransomed, to find out her father’s garden at once, and by all means to seek an opportunity of going there to see her. I answered in a few words that I would do so, and that she must remember to commend us to Lela Marien with all the prayers the captive had taught her.

This having been done, steps were taken to ransom our three comrades, so as to enable them to quit the baño, lest, seeing me ransomed and themselves not, though the money was forthcoming, they should make a disturbance about it and the devil should prompt them to do something that might injure Zoraida, for though their position might be sufficient to relieve me from this apprehension, nevertheless I was unwilling to run any risk in the matter. So I had them ransomed in the same way as I was, handing over all the money to the merchant so that he might with safety and confidence give security.

For a further installment of The Captive’s Tale, see the next post in this blog.