THE ODYSSEY OF RENÉ DU CHASTELET DES BOYS – PART 12

(This post is a continuation of The Odyssey of René du Chastelet des Boys – Parts 1 through 11. If you haven’t done so already, it’s probably best to read at least the more recent of those posts before continuing on here.)

This episode brings us close to the end of this series of posts translated from René du Chastelet des Boys Odyssée, for in this episode des Boys manages to devise a way to have himself ransomed, though the process is a bit complicated.

Throughout my various trips over sea and land, I never stopped thinking about possible ways of recovering my freedom—the charms of which tasted sweeter after their loss. Eventually, I decided to attempt asking my fellow slaves if they had any notions about how to go about obtaining freedom from our wretched situation in Algiers.

A few days afterward, on a Friday—which is a holiday for the Turks, like Saturday is among Jews and Sunday among Christians—I met by chance in the bagnio [the slave pen] of Ali-Picheny, the general of the Algiers galley fleet, the Sieur Anier Levallois, one of the men I had originally been captured with [see The Odyssey of René du Chastelet des Boys – Part 2]. He had a small concession stand by the main door of the bagnio where he sold tobacco and brandy.

After the usual welcome and courtesies, I learned from him that the Sieur de Cahaignes d’Escures, another one of the men I had originally been captured with [see The Odyssey of René du Chastelet des Boys – Parts 1 & 2], had reached an agreement with his owner, Car-Ibrahim [Black Abraham], to be ransomed for the sum of twelve hundred ecus. Having negotiated this agreement, the Sieur de Cahaignes d’Escures was now looking for some fellow countryman whom he could trust so he could send him to Provence to see the Archbishop of Aix, his relative, friend, and protector, in order to acquire the needed ransom funds as soon as possible.

I then talked with the Sieur de Cahaignes d’Escures himself, who assured me that he could bear the loss of twelve hundred ecus without much resentment or notable alteration in his fortune, and that the only difficulty he foresaw was that there were no trade relations of any sort—and so no means of communication—between the city of Rouen, the place of his birth, and North Africa. He had faith, though in the Archbishop of Aix, who he said could make the necessary arrangements for his parents, from whom he expected the required funds.

The Sieur de Cahaignes was in truth more impatient than worried, having no doubt that his father and mother would do their best to free him from the hands of the infidels. He had, accordingly, convinced his owner to purchase some other French slave, whose ransom was low, whom he could then send to France to solicit the funds to buy them both free.

I offered myself to the Sieur de Cahaignes, my colleague in misfortune, with such sincerity and repeated oaths that he said he was disposed to accept me. He needed to be certain of the lowness of my ransom, though. I assured him that my master, Beiram Ouda Bachi, was quite satisfied with my duties to him as a slave, and that he had once said that, if he sold me, he would ask no other price for me than what he paid at the Badestan. He was a soldier, and a brave man, and little interested in making a profit from his slave.

Sieur de Cahaignes and I decided that we must convince Beiram Ouda Bachi to sell me to Car-Ibrahim. Our deliberations complete, I returned to my owner.

Beiram Ouda Bachi asked my where I had been. I told him about how the Sieur de Cahaignes wished to send me to his country to ask his wealthy and accommodating parents to pay his ransom. Car-Ibrahim was somebody Beiram Ouda Bachi knew very well, having drunk sorbet with him many times in the Souk [the market], and Beiram seemed open to the idea.

When I went to bed that night, an army of a thousand thoughts bristling with a million difficulties besieged me, ruining my peace of mind. When the dawn removed the darkness, I had hardly slept at all. I rose early and kept close to my master in order to be able to present my proposal to him yet again.

First, though, it was necessary to know how much I had cost him. Fortunately, I was informed (without him knowing it) by a Portuguese renegade who was present at my auction, that the price Beiram Ouda Bachi paid to buy me from Fatima, my previous owner, had been sixty pieces of eight. It was true, however, that by now I was worth something more, being healthier and better equipped than when I left the said Fatima.

I still was not certain that Beiram Ouda Bachi actually would part with me for what he paid for me. But one has to beat the iron while it is hot. So I asked him if he would agree to accept ransom money for me from Car-Ibrahim and then pressed him further to know what he had paid for me, in case Car-Ibrahim, at the urging of the Sieur de Cahaignes, did indeed offer to buy me from him.

Beiram told me, with a frown, that if he was going to sell me, he would rather accept payment to set me free than to sell me as a slave into the hands of another owner. I convinced him, however, that selling me to Car-Ibrahim was in fact my best chance of returning to my own country a free man, since I was not able to arrange anything for myself, for I was only a simple soldier of fortune, as he knew.

He accepted all this and agreed to sell me for the sixty pieces of eight I had originally cost him, plus four more for the clothes he had provided me with, and two more for the port tax that would be incurred by my sale—which amounted to a total of sixty-six pieces of eight.

We met with Car-Ibrahim the next day in one of the boutiques in the Badestan where he and Car-Ibrahim used to meet to drink sorbet and take tobacco together. We waited there for two endless hours before Car-Ibrahim and his slave finally appeared.

After a fairly short conference, they agreed on my price—seventy pieces of eight.

Car-Ibrahim went off and returned in a little while with the money wrapped carefully in a handkerchief and handed it over to Beiram Ouda Bachi.

Beiram gave me a parting gift of thirty aspres, which equaled half a piece of eight. I thanked him sincerely for his kindness and generosity…

and then walked away with my new owner.

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For the next installment of René du Chastelet des Boys’ adventures, see The Odyssey of René du Chastelet des Boys – Part 13.

For those who may be interested…

The above excerpt (which, as usual, has been abridged) comes from des Boys’ L’Odyssée ou diversité d’aventures, rencontres et voyages en Europe, Asie et Affrique, pp. 82 – 88.