"It rejoices me," said the consul, "to find that, as I expected, your highness's—"
"Yes, yes; say no more on that head," interrupted the Dey. "Here! Lucien," he added, calling aloud to his secretary, who, clad in superb Oriental costume, appeared at the door which led into his office, "make out an order to cancel the sentence against your father and brother, and let them be sent to the palace immediately. I will speak with thee again on the matter.—Meanwhile, will Monsieur le Consul come and behold the present which I am preparing for my royal master the Sublime Porte?"
There was a touch of sarcasm in the tone in which he used the words "royal master," which the consul understood well enough, for he was aware that although nominally subject to Turkey, Algiers was to all intents and purposes an independent power, and that the present referred to was almost all the benefit derived by the Sultan from his piratical vassal.
It was costly enough, no doubt, viewed simply in the light of a gift, and afforded a subject of great interest to the consul when permitted to survey it—an honour, by the way, which the Dey would not have conferred on the consul of any of the other nations represented at the Algerine court, for the British consul at that time was, as we have said, a special favourite. It consisted of two magnificent
