The captain, upon Candide's first proposal, had already tacked
about, and he made the crew ply their oars so effectually, that the
vessel flew through the water, quicker than a bird cleaves the air.

  Candide bestowed a thousand embraces on the Baron and Pangloss. "And
so then, my dear Baron, I did not kill you? and you, my dear Pangloss,
are come to life again after your hanging? But how came you slaves
on board a Turkish galley?"

  "And is it true that my dear sister is in this country?" said the
Baron.

  "Yes," said Cacambo.

  "And do I once again behold my dear Candide?" said Pangloss.

  Candide presented Martin and Cacambo to them; they embraced each
other, and all spoke together. The galley flew like lightning, and
soon they were got back to port. Candide instantly sent for a Jew,
to whom he sold for fifty thousand sequins a diamond richly worth
one hundred thousand, though the fellow swore to him all the time by
Father Abraham that he gave him the most he could possibly afford.
He no sooner got the money into his hands, than he paid it down for
the ransom of the Baron and Pangloss. The latter flung himself at
the feet of his deliverer, and bathed him with his tears; the former
thanked him with a gracious nod, and promised to return him the
money the first opportunity.

  "But is it possible," said he, "that my sister should be in Turkey?"

  "Nothing is more possible," answered Cacambo, "for she scours the
dishes in the house of a Transylvanian prince."

  Candide sent directly for two Jews, and sold more diamonds to
them; and then he set out with his companions in another galley, to
deliver Miss Cunegund from slavery.

  CHAPTER 28

  What Befell Candide, Cunegund, Pangloss, Martin, etc.

  Pardon," said Candide to the Baron; "once more let me entreat your
pardon, Reverend Father, for running you through the body."

  "Say no more about it," replied the Baron. "I was a little too hasty
I must own; but as you seem to be desirous to know by what accident
I came to be a slave on board the galley where you saw me, I will
inform you. After I had been cured of the wound you gave me, by the
College apothecary, I was attacked and carried off by a party of
Spanish troops, who clapped me in prison in Buenos Ayres, at the
very time my sister was setting out from there. I asked leave to
return to Rome, to the general of my Order, who appointed me
chaplain to the French Ambassador at Constantinople. I had not been
a week in my new office, when I happened to meet one evening a young
Icoglan, extremely handsome and well-made. The weather was very hot;
the young man had an inclination to bathe. I took the opportunity to
bathe likewise. I did not know it was a crime for a Christian to be
found naked in company with a young Turk. A cadi ordered me to receive
a hundred blows on the soles of my feet, and sent me to the galleys. I
do not believe that there was ever an act of more flagrant
injustice. But I would fain know how my sister came to be a scullion
to a Transylvanian prince, who has taken refuge among the Turks?"

  "But how happens it that I behold you again, my dear Pangloss?" said
Candide.

  "It is true," answered Pangloss, "you saw me hanged, though I
ought properly to have been burned; but you may remember, that it
rained extremely hard when they were going to roast me. The storm
was so violent that they found it impossible to light the fire; so
they hanged me because they could do no better. A surgeon purchased my
body, carried it home, and prepared to dissect me. He began by
making a crucial incision from my navel to the clavicle. It is
impossible for anyone to have been more lamely hanged than I had been.
The executioner was a subdeacon, and knew how to burn people very
well, but as for hanging, he was a novice at it, being quite out of
practice; the cord being wet, and not slipping properly, the noose did
not join. In short, I still continued to breathe; the crucial incision
made me scream to such a degree, that my surgeon fell flat upon his
back; and imagining it was the Devil he was dissecting, ran away,
and in his fright tumbled down stairs. His wife hearing the noise,
flew from the next room, and seeing me stretched upon the table with
my crucial incision, was still more terrified than her husband, and
fell upon him. When they had a little recovered themselves, I heard
her say to her husband, 'My dear, how could you think of dissecting
a heretic? Don't you know that the Devil is always in them? I'll run
directly to a priest to come and drive the evil spirit out.' I
trembled from head to foot at hearing her talk in this manner, and
exerted what little strength I had left to cry out, 'Have mercy on
me!' At length the Portuguese barber took courage, sewed up my
wound, and his wife nursed me; and I was upon my legs in a fortnight's
time. The barber got me a place to be lackey to a Knight of Malta, who
was going to Venice; but finding my master had no money to pay me my
wages, I entered into the service of a Venetian merchant and went with
him to Constantinople.

  "One day I happened to enter a mosque, where I saw no one but an old
man and a very pretty young female devotee, who was telling her beads;
her neck was quite bare, and in her bosom she had a beautiful