"About a year ago my adoptive father died; and weary of the supine and inactive life the Turks usually lead, I determined to fit out an armed vessel, and amuse myself by sailing up the Archipelago, and visiting some of the Grecian islands, not without a latent intention of quitting Algiers altogether, and returning to some European state: to which end I carried with me all the wealth I could make portable: this design I executed accordingly, but I had not long quitted Algiers, when we were attacked and captured by a French frigate.
"From that moment I have never known peace.
"Fearing to be discovered, knowing that the punishment for desertion must be mine, should we touch at any Spanish port, and I should be recognized; dreading to be accused of the murder of Lady St. Aubyn, of which, though innocent, I could not clear myself; and, above all, my conscience awakened, by being once more amongst Christians, to the sin I had been guilty of in apostatizing from my religion, I have led a life of fear, inquietude, and anguish--a life which I feel will soon be terminated: and, oh, how dreadful the reflection that my punishment is but beginning.
"Oh, Sir," added the poor wretch, throwing himself at the feet of the venerable priest, who, as well as all present, had heard the detail of his crimes with horror, "you are a priest, a Catholic of that church I so wickedly abandoned. Can you give me hope? Will you pray for me?"
"I am a priest, and a Catholic," replied the old man, "and shall be willing and desirous of giving you all the consolation in my power. At present you have given the best proof of repentance, by the confession you have made, and to confirm it, you must sign it with your name, and acknowledge the truth of what I have written, before all present."
He then gave the paper to De Sylva to read, who signed it, and declared it was correct.
"I would swear it," he added, in heart-broken accents: "but oh! by what can a wretch like me swear, and be believed!"
He was now conveyed to a decent bed in Ross's house, who, like a true Christian pastor, would not abandon him to his despair; but placed by his bed-side, strove in conjunction with the Catholic priest, De la Tour, by the most consoling attentions, and hopes founded on his present repentance, to beat away the busy meddling fiend, who laid strong siege unto the wretch's soul.