I noticed this youth fighting always in the front line with the Venetians, and marvelled at the strength and dexterity with which he used his weapons, and afterwards, when there were three of us around him, he fought like a boar surrounded by hounds.

I am sure he is a brave youth, and well worthy the position he held, to whatsoever he owed it." "I belong to no noble family of Venice," Francis said.

"My name is Francis Hammond, and my parents are English." "You are not a mercenary, I trust ?" the Genoese captain asked earnestly.
"I am not," Francis replied.

"I am a citizen of Venice, and my name is inscribed in her books, as my comrades will vouch." "Right glad am I that it is so," the Genoese said, "for Pietro Doria, who is now, by the death of his brother, in chief command, has ordered that every mercenary found among the prisoners shall today be slain." "It is a brutal order," Francis said fearlessly, "whosoever may have given it! A mercenary taken in fair fight has as much right to be held for ransom or fair exchange as any other prisoner; and if your admiral thus breaks the laws of war, there is not a free lance, from one end of Italy to the other, but will take it up as a personal quarrel." The Genoese frowned at the boldness with which Francis spoke, but at heart agreed in the sentiments he expressed; for among the Genoese officers, generally, there was a feeling that this brutal execution in cold blood was an impolitic, as well as a disgraceful deed.
The officers were now placed in the fore hold of the ship, the crew being confined in the after hold.

Soon afterwards, they knew by the motion of the vessel that sail had been put on her.
"So we are on our way to a Genoese prison, Francisco," Matteo said.