Colonel, by begging him to accept the office, and to lead them out at once.
"I accept it with pleasure," said the Colonel, turning to Rais Ali, who stood at his elbow.—"Rais, you will accompany me to interpret—"
"Oh, Monsieur!" exclaimed Rais, who had not many minutes before been boasting to his friend Flaggan that he was a brave English tar as good as himself, but who now turned very pale; "oh no, no! Please, Monsieur, demand me not to go dis time for interprit. For certain the Dey hims kill me—hims kill all of us."
"Well then, Rais," replied the Colonel, somewhat amused at the man's undisguised terror, "we shall all die together, and you will at least have the comfort of falling in goodly company."
"But, master," supplicated Rais, "I's not a Turk; me dare not defy the Dey to hims visage I's only a craulie!"
By which the unhappy man meant to explain that he was only the son of a Turk by an Algerine mother, and that as such he could expect no mercy if he aided in bearding the Dey in his den; but the Colonel was inexorable, and poor Rais Ali was obliged to submit.
At this time, the English and French being at war, there existed a somewhat natural feeling of estrangement between the representatives of the
