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النشر الإلكتروني

ADVENTURE AT SEA.

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secret, telling him that they would not sell their Turkish prisoners, but land them, if possible, on some part of the African coast. The stranger laughed at them for their generosity, and told them that they might get two hundred pieces of gold for each man; to which they replied, that they would not sell them for the whole island. Their visitor, contrary to his promise, divulged the secret, and a resolution was formed amongst the Spaniards to seize the Turks. The two Quakers, hearing what was designed, instantly set sail, and, by the aid of their prisoners, they succeeded in escaping pursuit. For nine days they cruised about the Mediterranean, uncertain what course to take to get quit of their prisoners, but determined not to land them in any Christian country. On one occasion the Turks made an attempt to regain the command of the vessel, but were quietly put down by the master and mate. The English crew then began to grumble at the danger to which they were exposed by their superiors, who, they said, preferred the lives of Turks to their own. The vessel was also all this time undergoing the risk of being recaptured by some other Turkish rovers. Still the master and mate adhered to their resolution of avoiding bloodshed and the guilt of slavery. At length, having approached the coast of Barbary, it came to be debated how they were to set the Turks on shore. To have given them the boat for this purpose would have been dangerous, for they might have returned in it with arms, and taken the vessel. If sent with a portion of the crew, they might rise upon these men, and throw them into the sea. If sent in two detachments, that first landed might have raised the natives, and attacked the boat on its second arrival. At length Lurting offered to take the whole ashore at once, with the aid of two men and a boy. The captain consented to this arrangement, which was carried into effect, without any accident. The Turks, on being set down on the beach, were so much reconciled to their generous captors, as to ask them to go along to a neighbouring village, where they promised to treat them liberally. But Lurting thought it more prudent to return immediately.

Favourable winds brought the vessel quickly to England,

where the story of the captured Turks was already known. So great an interest did the forbearing conduct of the Quakers excite, that the king, the Duke of York, and several noblemen, came on board at Greenwich, to see the men who could act so extraordinary a part. The king took much the same view of the case which the English captain at Majorca had taken. To Thomas Lurting he said, "You should have brought the Turks to me;" to which the mate only made the mild reply, "I thought it better for them to be in their own country."

STORY OF UBERTO.

Genoa, a city on the Mediterranean, was once remarkable as a place of commerce. It was usually governed by a body of nobles; but, on one occasion, the nobles lost their power, and the city was managed for some time by a set of men elected by the people. The leading man in this popular government was Uberto, who, though originally poor, had risen, by his talents and industry, to be one of the most considerable merchants.

At length, by a violent effort, the nobles put down the popular government. They used their victory with rigour, in order to prevent any other attempt being made, in future, to thrust them out of power. Überto was seized as a traitor, and the nobles thought they used him very gently, when they only decreed that he should be banished for ever from Genoa, and deprived of all his property. To hear this sentence, he was brought before the new chief magistrate Adorno, a nobleman not void of generous feeling, but rendered proud by his sense of high rank, and fierce in consequence of the late broils. Indignant at Uberto, he passed the sentence in very insolent terms, saying, "You-you-the son of a base mechanic, who have dared to trample on the nobles of Genoa-you, by their clemency, are only doomed to shrink again into the nothing from which you sprang."

Uberto bowed respectfully to the court, but said to Adorno that perhaps he might hereafter find cause to repent the language he had used. He then set sail for Naples, where it chanced that some merchants were in his debt.

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They readily paid what they owed, and, with this small relic of his fortune, he proceeded to an island in the Archipelago, belonging to the state of Venice. Here his industry and talents for business soon raised him once more to wealth.

Among other places which he sometimes visited as a merchant, was the city of Tunis, at that time in friendship with the Venetians, though hostile to most of the other Italian states, and particularly to Genoa. In Tunis, where the people were Mahommedans, it was customary to make slaves of all Christians taken in war. As Uberto was on a visit to one of the first men of that place at his countryhouse, he saw a young Christian slave at work in irons, whose appearance excited his compassion. The youth seemed to feel the labour too severe for his slender frame: he leaned at intervals upon his spade, while a sigh burst from his bosom, and a tear stole down his cheek. Uberto addressed him in Italian, and the young man eagerly caught the sounds of his native tongue. By a few kind words, Uberto soon drew from him that he was the son of Adorno, the chief magistrate of Genoa. The banished merchant started at the intelligence, but checked himself, and hastily walked away.

He immediately sought out the corsair captain who had taken the young Adorno. He asked what ransom was expected for the youth, and learned that, as he was believed to be a person of importance, not less than two thousand crowns would be taken. Uberto instantly paid the money. Taking a servant, with a handsome suit of clothes, he returned to the young man, and told him he was free. With his own hands he helped to take off the youth's fetters, and to change his dress. The young Adorno thought it all a dream, and at first could scarcely be persuaded that he was really no longer a slave. But Uberto soon convinced him by taking him home to his lodgings, and treating him with all the kindness due to a friend. When a proper opportunity occurred, the generous merchant put young Adorno into a vessel bound for Italy; and having given him a sum of money sufficient to bear his expenses to Genoa, he said, My dear young friend, I could with much pleasure detain

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you longer here, if it were not for the thought that you must be anxious to return to your parents. Deign to accept of this provision for your voyage, and deliver this letter to your father. Farewell. I will not soon forget you, and I hope you will not soon forget me." The youth poured forth his thanks to his benefactor, and they parted with mutual tears and embraces.

Adorno and his wife meanwhile supposed that the ship containing their son had foundered at sea, and they had long given him up as dead. When he appeared before them, their mourning was changed into a transport of joy. They clasped him in their arms, and for some time could not speak. As soon as their agitation had a little subsided, the youth informed them how he had been taken prisoner, and made a slave. "And to whom," said Adorno, I indebted for the inestimable benefit of your liberation?" "This letter," said the son, "will inform you." He opened it, and read as follows:

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am

"That son of a vile mechanic, who told you that one day you might repent the scorn with which you treated him, has the satisfaction of seeing his prediction accomplished. For know, proud noble! that the deliverer of your only son from slavery is THE BANISHED UBERTO."

Adorno dropped the letter, and covered his face with his hand, while his son expatiated on the virtues of Uberto, and the truly paternal kindness he had experienced from him. As the debt could not be cancelled, Adorno resolved, if possible, to repay it. He exerted himself amongst the nobles of Genoa, to induce them to reverse the sentence which had been passed on Uberto. Time having softened their feelings, they granted his request, and he soon had the pleasure of communicating to Uberto the intelligence that he was once more a citizen of Genoa. In the same letter he

expressed his gratitude for his son's liberation, acknowledged the nobleness of Uberto's conduct, and requested his friendship. Uberto soon after returned to his native city, where he spent the remainder of his days in the enjoyment of general respect.

MERCY.

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UNCLE TOBY AND THE FLY.

"My uncle Toby was a man patient of injuries-not from want of courage, where just occasions called it forth, nor from any insensibility or obtuseness of his intellectual parts. He was of a peaceful placid nature; no jarring element in it, all was mixed up so kindly. My uncle Toby had scarce a heart to retaliate upon a fly. Go,' says he, one day at dinner, to an overgrown one which had buzzed about his nose, and tormented him cruelly all dinner time, and which, after many attempts, he had caught at last, as it flew by him; I'll not hurt thee,' says my uncle Toby, rising from his chair, and going across the room with the fly in his hand; I'll not hurt a hair of thy head! Go,' says he, lifting up the sash, and opening his hand as he spoke, to let it escape-go, poor wretch! get thee gone: why should I hurt thee? This world is surely wide enough to hold thee and me."

MERCY.

The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blessed;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:
"Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway-

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When mercy seasons justice. Think of this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us.
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.

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