They ballooned out, swelling to the wind, and the
galeasse surged forward at a speed that was more than doubled. The order
to cease rowing followed, and the slaves were left to return thanks to
Heaven for their respite, and to rest in their chains until such time as
their sinews should be required again.
The vessel's vast prow, which ended in a steel ram and was armed with a
culverin on either quarter, was crowded with lounging corsairs, who took
their ease there until the time to engage should be upon them. They
leaned on the high bulwarks or squatted in groups, talking, laughing,
some of them tailoring and repairing garments, others burnishing their
weapons or their armour, and one swarthy youth there was who thrummed a
gimri and sang a melancholy Shilha love-song to the delight of a score or
so of bloodthirsty ruffians squatting about him in a ring of variegated
colour.
The gorgeous poop was fitted with a spacious cabin, to which admission
was gained by two archways curtained with stout silken tapestries upon
whose deep red ground the crescent was wrought in brilliant green. Above
the cabin stood the three cressets or stern-lamps, great structures of
gilded iron surmounted each by the orb and crescent. As if to continue
the cabin forward and increase its size, a green awning was erected from
it to shade almost half the poop-deck. Here cushions were thrown, and
upon these squatted now Asad-ed-Din with Marzak, whilst Biskaine and some
three or four other officers who had escorted him aboard and whom he had
retained beside him for that voyage, were lounging upon the gilded
balustrade at the poop's forward end, immediately above the rowers'
benches.
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